


The Seventh Mystery of Haneoka

by corgiis



Category: BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game), 地縛少年花子くん | Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun | Toilet-bound Hanako-kun (Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Jibaku Shonen Hanako-kun, Angst, F/F, Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun Manga Spoilers, contains spoilers for the manga but you dont need to read it in order to understand anything, definitely won't be canon compliant once the manga finishes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-25 12:50:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 29,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22496386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corgiis/pseuds/corgiis
Summary: Rumor has it that at Haneoka Girl's High School, there is a ghost of a little girl haunting a bathroom on the third floor, and that whoever manages to summon her will be granted a wish... at a price.But that's all just harmless speculation, right?...Right?(A TsuguSayo TBHK au)
Relationships: Hazawa Tsugumi/Hikawa Sayo, Shirokane Rinko & Udagawa Ako, Udagawa Ako & Udagawa Tomoe, Wakamiya Eve/Yamato Maya
Comments: 5
Kudos: 73





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> what if i didnt write anything for months only to come back with a fic for two entirely different fandoms from my last fic haha

_Hey, have you heard the rumors about the schools' Seven Mysteries? They say that if you uncover the secrets behind these mysteries, something big will occur. It's so exciting, right?_

_...Huh? You don't know about them? Well then, I'll tell you about the most well-known one!_

_The seventh mystery: Hanako-san of the third-floor bathroom._


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heads up: sayo is gonna be referred to as 'hanako' until her names revealed
> 
> [also here are their designs!](https://imgur.com/a/zHqnZaw)

It's a well-known fact amongst the students that there are seven mysteries hidden within the bounds of Haneoka Girls' High School. Just about everyone knows about them, but not everyone believes in them. To most, they're nothing more than just urban legends; something made up to scare children into behaving. 

And before the events that would occur later that day, Tsugumi Hazawa was one of these disbelievers. However, it just so happened that today she'd been feeling a little bit bold.

It was around 5:00 pm, the usual ending time for student council meetings. 

_"You've heard of Hanako-san of the bathroom, right?"_ The other girls had gossiped. _"They say that you can find her in the third stall of the third-floor bathroom in the old building…"_

As she was heading out of the student council room, Tsugumi overheard the other council members gossiping about the school's supposed 'seventh mystery': the ghost of a little girl haunting a bathroom in the old building. Spooky.

_"...and that she'll grant a wish to anyone that can summon her."_

...A wish, huh?

* * *

And so, Tsugumi was now standing outside of this particular bathroom stall. 

To be completely honest, she wasn't too sure if ghosts really existed in the first place. Even if they did, could they really grant wishes as they say in the rumors? If anything, she was mostly just curious whether or not the rumors were really true. Now… how did the summoning procedure go again?

_"To summon her, you have to knock on the stall three times, and then…"_

"Hanako-san, Hanako-san, are you there?" Tsugumi asked nervously, peering at the stall door as if waiting for something to jump out at her.

_"...but be careful! In return for the wish, she'll have to take away something very dear to you…"_

The door slowly creaked open. Tsugumi held her breath in anticipation. 

"I'm here…." 

Tsugumi shuddered. At that moment, she could've sworn she'd heard… a voice coming from the stall? She cautiously peered behind the stall's door, but there was nothing there. Apart from the usual toilet stall amenities, that is. 

"Ah… so it was just my imagination…" she sighed in relief. Although, she'd be lying if she said that she wasn't at least a little disappointed that there was nothing in the stall. Eve would probably feel more or less the same, once she'd told her of the debunked myth.

Suddenly, something places its hand on Tsugumi's shoulder. "I’m behind you," it muttered. She shrieked in terror. The figure began reaching out its hand to Tsugumi, causing her to instinctively back up against the wall and cover her head in anticipation of a blow that never came.

"...Are you okay?" The figure asked, its hand still held out to her. It was definitely a girl's voice, no doubt, but… she sounded about the same age as her. That couldn't be right. Wasn't Hanako-san supposed to be a child?

Tsugumi slowly let down her arms and peered at the figure. Before her eyes stood a girl with long, blue hair. She wore a very old school uniform, a seal on her right cheek, and had what seemed to be will-o-wisps floating alongside her. No doubt, this was...

Tsugumi reached out to take the girl's outstretched hand. It went straight through. "You're… you're a ghost, aren't you…?" 

"That's right," the girl affirmed, gracefully planting herself down on the toilet in the third stall. "I'm Hanako-san of the girl's bathroom, the Seventh of Haneoka's seven mysteries. Pleased to meet you."

"H-huh? You're Hanako-san? But…" Tsugumi paused. "But you can't be…? All the rumors say you're a little girl with a bobbed haircut and a red skirt!"

"Those… those stories are quite outdated," Hanako says, averting her eyes as if she were ashamed by the rumors. "But aside from my age and appearance, everything else you've heard about me is correct. I will indeed grant the wishes of those who manage to summon me, for a price."

"Ah…" Tsugumi stopped. Technically, she wasn’t even making this wish for herself. Are ghosts allowed to grant wishes even if the wish wasn’t for the person making it? Were there any ghost laws that she was unaware of? 

"Ahem…" Hanako clears her throat, snapping Tsugumi out of her deep thought. "May I have your name and wish, please?"

"Ah, yes!" she says, a little louder than she'd intended. "I'm Tsugumi Hazawa, a high school student from class 1-B!"

“Alright…” the spirit says, jotting something down in a notebook that she seemingly pulled out of nowhere. “And what might your wish be?”

“I...I’m here on behalf of a friend!” Tsugumi blurts out. 

Hanako stops writing. “Oh?” she said, raising an eyebrow. She clearly hadn’t received any requests in absentia before.

“Well... my friend group kinda had a huge fight a few days ago, and now no one’s talking to each other anymore,” she clarifies. “I just want us to be able to stay friends… I don’t want our group to fall apart.”

The spirit stares at her blankly. “So you’re just looking for friendship help? It doesn’t really sound like you'd need supernatural help for this one.”

She made a compelling point.

“Yes but… my friends are really good at holding grudges you see,” Tsugumi says sheepishly. “I was hoping that you’d be able to uhm… change their minds through magic or something…?”

“I don’t think my abilities work anything like that,” Hanako sighs, giving her an apologetic look. “Nevertheless, I’ll do my best to grant your wish.”

“Really? You will?! That's great!" Tsugumi clapped her hands together excitedly. Her wish was about to be granted! “So how do you make people’s wishes come true, anyway? Do you use magical items or something?” 

“Yes, I believe I have something here that might be of use to you,” Hanako says, handing her a small book. The title reads: _The Teen Girl’s Guide to Dealing with Friendships!_

"Huh…?" Tsugumi glanced down at the book. It looked to be so old that it was practically falling apart. "I-I'm sorry but… do you have anything else that we can use?"

"Technically, there are," Hanako admits. "But since the price you'd owe for seeking powers beyond human comprehension is quite large, this is our safest option." She throws a distasteful look at the old book. "I do apologize for the awful state it's in, however."

"I see…" Tsugumi shifts her feet. "But what if I do want those powers?"

Hanako opens up the book, slightly grimacing at its wear-and-tear. "...I think we should test out the non-magical options first, wouldn't you agree? I don't actually have any proper magical items in my possession anyway."

"Huh? But-"

“Let's just go at our own pace for now, okay?”

* * *

They'd tried everything. 

First, they'd tried to get the others to communicate with each other and clear up any misunderstandings. But that plan failed before it was even initiated, due to the other girls' conflicting schedules. Then, since none of them would talk to each other, Tsugumi thought it'd be best if she acted as the 'messenger' in the situation; also proved to be a bust, and ultimately turned out to have no real effect. 

It seemed as if there was no hope left for the group.

"Ahh… I don't know what to do anymore…" Tsugumi sighs out of exhaustion. She and Hanako were sitting on the school's rooftop, which happened to be a rather nostalgic childhood hangout spot for Tsugu and her friends.

"You really care about your friends, don't you, Hazawa-san?" Hanako says, giving her a small smile. "How long have you all known each other for?"

"Ah, our whole lives, probably? We go all the way back to preschool, I think," Tsugumi reminisces. "We all played at the same playground growing up and eventually became best friends. It kinda just grew from there"

"The disagreement you all had must've been really serious then if it managed to sever such a strong friendship."

"Haha, I guess so…"

Hanako raises her eyebrows. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that you don't think of yourself very often."

Tsugumi looks up at her, surprised. "What do you mean?" 

"You were willing to do whatever it took just to keep you and your friends together, even going as far as to seek help from a supernatural," Hanako points out. "Your wish wasn't even specifically for yourself."

"I-is that a bad thing?" 

Hanako pushes a strand of hair behind her ear. "Not necessarily. Though, I don't think it's such a bad idea to think of yourself every once in a while, either."

"Huh…"

The two sat in silence and watched as the sun set in the distance. Finally, Hanako decides to break the silence. 

"Here, I've got something for you," she says, pulling something out from her pockets. It was a small stack of stationery papers and an ink pen. 

Tsugumi takes the items in her hands. "What are these for?"

"I read that handwritten notes were one way to show that you really care about something," Hanako explains. "You should try writing one to your friends and see if that helps."

Tsugu looked at the stack of paper. What could she possibly write that she hadn't already said to them? One wrong word and she could probably make matters even worse. Hanako, sensing her stress, puts a hand on Tsugumi's shoulder. "You did your best to get to where you are now. I'm sure it'll turn out fine."

"Hanako-san…" Tsugumi was once again reinvigorated by the encouragement. "I'll do my best!"

* * *

Tsugumi had decided to use the stationary to tell everyone to meet up at their old hangout spot on the roof. All that was left to do now was to get over there and… talk it all out.

"I'm actually feeling kind of nervous right now if I'm gonna be honest," Tsugumi says. She was once again in the girls' bathroom, along with Hanako. "What if it doesn't work out?"

"You could always just let things turn out the way they're supposed to," Hanako offers. 

"No way! It's just not the same if our friend group is all separated like this!" 

The school spirit shrugs. "Well, that's the only alternative I can think of. I'm pretty new to all of this, too." 

Tsugumi pauses. "Wait, what? You've never done this before?" 

"Not many people manage to summon me, so I don't get called out that often in the first place."

Well, that explains the friendship advice book and the lack of magical items. Oh well, at least Hanako was (sort of?) helpful in the end anyway.

As Tsugumi began heading out of the bathroom, she notices a small bag floating by one of Hanako's wisps. "Hey, Hanako-san? What are these?" she asks, holding up the bag. It was full of small, pearlescent disks, and smelled of sea salt.

Hanako looks back towards Tsugumi. "Oh, those are called 'matchmakers'. It'd probably be best if you-"

Before she could finish her sentence, Tsugumi was already halfway to putting one in her mouth. She clasped the bag tightly within her fists and held it up close to her chest. Hanako immediately reached out for it. "Hazawa-san, don't touch those!" she yells.

"Just at least tell me what they are!" Tsugumi yells back, the chip already in her mouth.

"Alright, alright, I'll tell you!" Hanako says, trying to appear calm and collected. "Those are mermaid scales. When two or more people ingest one from the same mermaid, a terrible curse will befall them. However, they will also be bonded together with a powerful force like no other-"

Tsugumi swallows the chip.

"H-Hazawa-san! Eating that is going to place a curse on you!" Hanako was panicking for real now. "I thought I told you not to touch them-"

"I don't care!" Tsugumi cried. "As long as my friends and I can stay together, I don't care about being cursed!"

"Hazawa-san…"

"Y-you… you told me that you didn't have any magical items, Hanako-san! You lied to me!"

And with that, Tsugumi ran out of the bathroom with the bag in her hands. Hanako could do nothing but silently watch her leave. 

* * *

Tsugumi ran as fast as she could to reach the rooftop. It was well after school had ended; the others should already be there by now. This was the only day she could find where they didn't have any conflicting after-school activities that would prevent them from meeting up. This was her only chance to make things right, at the risk of having to wait weeks for another one.

As she approached the last steps leading to the roof, she could see the heads of her friends gathered in a small group near the railings. ' _Yes! They're all here!'_ she thought.

"...just don't think this is going to work out."

Huh?

"What do you mean?"

What?

"I mean, look at us. We're all so different now, compared to our middle school selves. I just don't think we make very good friends anymore."

No. _No._ She was so close. It can't end so soon; not like this.

But… it wouldn't matter, anyway. As long as they all ingested the scales, it wouldn't matter whether or not-

Wait. Scales…? As she looked down at the bag, Tsugumi noticed that scales were now starting to form on her arms. Before she could even react, she was dragged down into the depths of what seemed to be an endless ocean.

 _'Why…? Why did things have to turn out this way…?'_ Tsugumi thought as she drifted among the waves. _'All I wanted was for us to remain friends… I didn't mean for any of this to happen…"_

"You did your best to get to where you are now." Hanako's words rang out in her head.

_'What… did I do, exactly? I invested all of my energy into maintaining our friendship with each other… I even tried to make a deal with a ghost… what exactly did I accomplish?'_

"I don't think it's such a bad idea to think of yourself every once in a while."

 _'Yeah, maybe… maybe then none of this would've happened…'_ It was starting to get harder and harder to breathe. _'I'm such an idiot… how could I have let things get this out of hand?'_

Suddenly, something encases Tsugumi and lifts her out of the dark waters. 

"That was close…" said a familiar voice. "If I were even a second later, you would've dried out and died." It was Hanako! And she could breathe again, too! 

"I tried to gather all of the essentials you'll need, Hazawa-san. I hope it's not too cramped in there," Hanako says. Just where exactly was 'in there', anyway?

"What's going on? What happened to me?" Tsugumi asks, glancing at her surroundings. Some tall grass, gravel, and… a plastic house? 

Hanako walks up to a mirror, holding up a fish tank to it. "Take a look for yourself," she says. Tsugumi couldn't believe what she was seeing. She'd... turned into a _gold_ _fish_?!

"Huh?! Why did I turn into a fish?" she cried. 

Hanako sighs. "I did try to warn you, Hazawa-san. You've been inflicted with the Curse of the Mermaid."

Ah, so that's why. 

"All fish are servants of mermaids, after all," Hanako continued, crossing her arms. "Had you have other people also ingest the scales the curse would've been split amongst all the parties involved, meaning you wouldn't have turned entirely into a fish."

"I see…"

"We call it a 'matchmaker' for this very reason. People afflicted with the same curse are consequently tied together with a powerful bond," Hanako explains. She looks down at the tank containing fish-Tsugu. "But you hesitated in giving your friends the scales. Why?"

"I… I'm not too sure myself," Tsugumi admits. "I didn't care what method I used, as long as we could all stay friends. I guess I kinda realized what a dumb mindset that was, haha…" 

Before either of the girls could say anything else, a terrible voice rumbled from below them. **"Now, now,"** it cried. **"Such foolish creatures, you humans are."**

"Eek! What was that?!" 

**"Be joyful, girl. From now on, you are to be my loyal servant! A subject within my royal court!"** the voice continued. A whirlpool was now starting to form in the center of the classroom they were in, and the room turned dark.

"I've been expecting your presence," Hanako says coldly. "Mermaid."

Just then, a huge hulking shape flies out from the whirlpool. As Tsugumi's eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw a large monstrous fish with the head of a human. Although, using the term 'human' might be just a tad too generous; the monster had two large beady eyes and had a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. It was truly a horrifying sight to behold; Tsugumi had never seen anything like it before.

 **"You're in my way, brat,"** the mermaid spat, hurling Hanako into the desks as if she weighed nothing at all.

"Hanako-san!" Tsugumi cried. 

**"How feeble!" t** he mermaid cackled at the sight. **"** **I am over a thousand years old, child! A mere school ghost simply has no chance of beating a being like me!"** It then turned its attention to Tsugumi's fish tank. **"Now as for you… you'll be coming with me."**

"Wait just a moment," said Hanako from behind them, getting up from where she was tossed. "I have yet to grant even a single wish for that girl. Why don't you let me do that first before you haul her off?"

**"Silence, you brat! I will not be ordered around by someone the likes of you!"**

"Oh? Is that so?" Hanako glared at the creature. "I was hoping it wouldn't come to this but…"

Hanako reached into her skirt pocket and drew out what looked to be an ordinary kitchen knife. But it was surrounded by an indescribable aura that Tsugumi couldn't quite place.

"...it looks like I'll have to resort to violence."

 **"Such insolence!"** the mermaid boomed and dove down to strike at the ghost, who appeared minuscule in comparison. As the mermaid swooped down, Hanako quickly ducked and slashed through the creature's stomach in one clean cut, a bright light filling the room as she did so.

 **"What?! How is this possible?!"** the mermaid cried, blood now started to pour out from the large gash. **"How could a mere weakling spirit like you possibly have this much power?!"**

Hanako said nothing, just continued to glare at the monster icily. In the past week that she's known her, Tsugumi has never seen her look this way.

 **"Curse you, school legend! I'll be back!"** the mermaid screeched as it retreated down the whirlpool, which immediately closed back up as it did so. This excessive force sends Tsugu's fish tank flying through the air.

"Got you," Hanako says, catching the tank with both hands.

"W-what's going to happen now?" Tsugumi asked, her voice shaking a little. "Is it going to come back for me?"

"It seemed awfully persistent, so chances are the answer would be yes," Hanako affirms, putting away her knife. "I did manage to buy us some time though, so it probably won't be for a while."

"Ah…" Tsugumi sniffs. "If only I hadn't swallowed that scale…"

Hanako closes her eyes and sighs deeply. "I did try to warn you, didn't I? I did tell you that getting involved with supernaturals always comes with a price," she scolds.

"But… what am I going to do now…? Am I going to be a fish forever?"

The school spirit walks over to the tank. "Well, since your friends didn't swallow the other scales, I can still technically grant a wish for you." She opens up the bag containing the rest of the mermaid scales. "Do you wish to be human again? It'll come at a cost, of course, and there's no guarantee that you'll be able to lead a normal life after this."

"Ah, yes please, Hanako-san! Please turn me back into a human again, I'll do anything!" Tsugumi cried, jumping up and down in the water. 

"Anything?" Hanako says, popping out a scale from the bag. She held it up to her mouth, swallowing it with one gulp. "Glad to hear it."

Next thing she knew, Tsugumi had turned back into a human and was now soaking wet from the water in the tank, which clattered noisily on the floor beside her.

"Now our fates are intertwined across the worlds of the living and the dead," Hanako explains. "I'll make it so that the curse is split between us."

"Ah… thank goodness…" Tsugumi breathes a sigh of relief. "But… what would you want from me in return?"

"Hmm… let's see here…" Hanako rubbed her chin in mock deep thought. "How does eternal servitude sound?"

"Huh?!"

And that was how Tsugumi Hazawa met Hanako-san of the girl's bathroom.

Inside the dimly lit classroom, colored by the reddening sunset, she'd managed to meet a mysterious girl who was truly not from this world. The seventh mystery of Haneoka. 

* * *

A radio in a dark room suddenly chatters to life.

_Where do things go when they've been forgotten by everyone? Do they simply fade out of existence?_

_...No. Those things are still here with us, even now._

_How you heard the rumors about the faeries? They say that..._

The radio is switched off, ending the broadcast.


	3. Chapter 3

It'd been about a week since Tsugumi met Hanako. And every day since then, she's been subjected to the most horrifying physical torture of all: cleaning the toilets.

 _"I've been wanting a human helper for quite some time now,"_ Hanako had said at the time. _"So you'd shown up at quite a convenient time."_

Unsurprisingly, having to balance student council work, helping out at her parents' café, _and_ janitor work at the same time proved to be a lot harder than one would expect. But since she was technically indebted to Hanako now, Tsugumi had no choice but to oblige. Not that she really complained about it though; anything was better than being a fish.

But it didn't make the toilet-cleaning process any less tedious either.

 _'Ahh… I really don't want to clean the toilets again today…'_ Tsugumi thought to herself while the English teacher read out excerpts from an old newspaper detailing the Apollo moon landings. _'She even put one of her wisps out to guard me… what was it called? Hakujoudai?'_

The girl sighs, already exhausted. _‘She also said that she had an important job for me today after I’d finished cleaning. I wonder what that’s about?’_

Hakujoudai floated just below her shoulder, slightly swaying from time to time. Tsugumi sighed and looked down at her notes. _'Technically it is my fault that I'm in this situation, but still…'_

Something shifts underneath the desks, watching. 

"Hazawa-san! Please read the first paragraph on page 15," the teacher called out.

"Ah, yes sir!" she replied, reaching down for her English textbook. Only, instead of grabbing a book, her fists grasped nothing but air. 

Tsugumi looked down at her desk. To her horror, everything that was on it just a moment ago had suddenly _vanished_. Her textbook, her notes, her pencil case; they were all gone. She scrambled to look around her desk for her belongings in a panic, but they were nowhere to be found.

"Hazawa-san? Is something wrong?" the teacher asked.

Something really weird was going on.

* * *

"Maybe it was the work of the Faeries!" Eve said to Tsugumi as they watered the class' plants together. They'd both been assigned the watering duty for their homeroom.

"The… Faeries?" Tsugumi asked. It sounded like something you'd find in a fairytale for little kids.

"Tsugumi-san, haven't you heard? Everyone's been talking about them lately!" Eve said, slightly surprised.

_"The Faeries…_

_Have you ever lost something you'd been keeping a close eye on? Or had something that's always been there vanish right when you needed it? Has this ever happened to you before?_ _If so, then you may have been a victim of the Faeries._

_But you must take care to never gaze upon them. For if you do…"_

"...they might take your life!" Eve concluded. She had her usual cheerful expression on her face, but Tsugumi could tell that even she was a little shaken by the rumor.

"Ah…"

"But thankfully it's just a rumor! I can't even imagine what would happen if something like that actually existed…" the taller girl shuddered. She hated ghost stories, but for some reason always made sure to share the latest rumors with Tsugumi anyway. "But…"

Background noises of their classmates' panic over their missing belongings echoed throughout the classroom.

"Who took my water bottle?!" "Ah! The towel that Senpai lent me is gone!" "Huh? You lost your lunchbox?"

"...Don't you think things have been going missing a lot lately?" Eve shuddered again, furrowing her brows. "What if these faeries really did exist?"

Just then, a student bursts into the classroom. "Everyone, come quick!" she yelled. "The locker doors are all gone!"

The student was right; each and every one of the locker doors had been pulled off their hinges, revealing the contents inside. Amongst the panicked and confused murmurs of her fellow students, Tsugumi was starting to catch on.

 _'There's no way someone could've done all this without being noticed…_ ' she thought. _'Don't tell me… it really was the Faeries?'_

"Ah!"

Tsugumi looked towards the yell. It looked like something had smacked into Eve, and sent the watering can she was holding flying straight into Tsugumi, drenching her in water. 

"Ahh! Tsugumi-san! Are you okay?" Eve gasped. "Something bumped into my hand and I lost my balance, I'm so sorry! I'll get something to dry you off!"

"Oh, that's okay Eve-chan, I-" Tsugumi began, and immediately stopped. She looked down at her arm, confirming her suspicions. She dashed off as quickly as she could, despite Eve's calls from behind her.

Unfortunately, not all of the curse's side effects could be removed by Hanako. The Curse of the Mermaid made it so that anytime Tsugumi came in contact with water, she would start to develop scales. Thus, prolonged interaction would lead to her eventually turning back into a fish. Such is life.

Not wanting anyone else to see her in this state, Tsugumi ran all the way to the old building, where Hanako's bathroom was.

"Ah...that was close…" Tsugumi exhaled, leaning up against the wall. Some of her scales had dried up during her run, but most of it was still very much visible. "I'm gonna need something to dry this off before I go back."

Upon saying this, Hakujoudai bumps into her shoulder. The wisp directs her attention to a pile of objects scattered across the floor, one of which was a towel.

"A towel!" Tsugumi gasped, dropping down to pick it up. Whoever its owner was, she'll have to thank them for letting her use it.

As she dried off her remaining visible scales, she began to take notice of the other items that were also on the floor. Amongst these items included a lunchbox, a water bottle, and… her school books. So that’s where they’d ended up. But what were they all doing here? 

_‘I’d better return these to their owners,’_ Tsugumi thought. 

While gathering up all of the scattered items for when she returned to her homeroom, however, she began hearing strange rustling noises coming from down the hall. When she traced the sound to its origin, it led her to an old and seemingly unused conference room.

“Hello? Is someone there?” she called out. Opening the door slightly, Tsugumi saw a dark, ghastly form sitting near one of the windows. It was leaning over what looked like a bag of candies and had been in the process of unwrapping one when she’d opened the door. Upon hearing the noise of the door being opened, the monster turned around to meet her eyes.

Tsugumi suppressed her scream and quickly backed away from the room. Whatever that thing she just saw was, it wasn’t human. It seemed to have multiple sets of eyes and freakishly long limbs protruding from its body; it looked like something straight out of a horror movie. 

**“You… saw… me…”** the monster slurred from behind the door. It fully yanked the door open, its arms starting to reach out towards Tsugumi, who fell back on the floor in shock. Her slip-up allowed for the creature to grab ahold of her legs and began dragging her towards the room. **“You… saw… me!”** it roared again in its horrible voice.

 _“You must take care to never gaze upon the Faeries,”_ Eve’s voice resounded in her head. _“For if you do…”_

The monster stood up, reaching a full height of at least 8 feet tall. It loomed over Tsugumi, getting ready to strike.

_“...they might take your life!”_

“Please, no!” Tsugumi cries, curling up and covering her head with her hands. Was this it? Was she really going to die? _Here?_

“Get it, Hakujoudai!” called a voice from behind her. Before she could even react, a bright light shot itself at the monster, disintegrating it in one blow. Tsugumi could hear pieces of it falling to the floor beside her.

“You’re really easily attracted to supernaturals, aren’t you Hazawa-san?” Hanako’s calming voice says. “You really ought to be more careful from now on.”

Hanako walks up to Tsugumi and puts her hand on her shoulders. She gestures towards the monster pieces, signaling that it wasn’t dangerous to look upon them anymore. Instead of seeing a pile of burnt monster flesh, she instead saw a group of small, pink, rabbit-shaped creatures bowing down before them.

“These are called ‘Mokke’,” Hanako explains. “Currently known as ‘Faeries’, these creatures are supernaturals that have been living amongst humans since ancient times. They’re known for performing small acts of thievery and mischief, but other than that they’re mostly harmless.”

“They look really different from how they did just a second ago,” Tsugumi says, softly poking one of the Mokke. “They’re really cute!”

“Mokke are naturally weak and timid by nature, so they tend to merge together and change their form as a defense mechanism,” the ghost continues. “Which is why they’re not typically known as being violent supernaturals, but…”

“We didn’t want to kill her...” one of the Mokke squeaked. “But our story got changed!”

“We had no choice,” agreed another Mokke.

“Story?” Tsugumi asked, frowning slightly. “What does that mean?”

“They mean the rumors that were spread around school,” Hanako clarifies. “Most supernaturals usually can’t go against their rumors, at the risk of being erased from existence.”

Tsugumi looks down at the Mokke, who were now starting to gather around her. One of them was lugging a bag of candy behind it, offering a piece to her. While it is true that they tried to kill her just now... it wasn’t really their fault. They were just doing it out of self-preservation. They didn’t want to die.

“...Hazawa-san,” Hanako implored. “Would you change the Mokke’s rumors for us?”

“Change the rumors?”

“I’m one of the school’s Seven Mysteries. It is my duty to supervise all the supernaturals in this school and maintain the relationship between humans and supernaturals. Because of this, I’ll have no choice but to exterminate anyone acting out of line.” Hanako adjusts her hat. “But you, Hazawa-san, are a human. You can help alleviate supernatural-human affairs by changing the rumors surrounding them.”

“Please,” one of the Mokke cried. “We’re sorry about what happened before.”

Tsugumi glanced down at the Mokke, who were now beginning to sniffle. “We’ve lived here happily for hundreds of years, please let us stay!”

“We’ll give you candy,” says another one, holding out a piece of hard candy to her. 

“Of course, if you decline, that’d be fine too,” Hanako offers. “They did try to kill you just now, after a-”

“I’ll do it!” Tsugumi quickly interrupts, scooping up the Mokke in her arms. “I’ll help change the rumors!” In response, the Mokke began cheering happily.

“And… you saved me again, Hanako-san. Just like with the mermaid incident from before.” Tsugumi gently pats the Mokke in her arms. “I don’t think I ever thanked you for that, so… thank you. I do appreciate what you’ve done for me.”

Hanako stares at her in surprise for a moment, then gives her a small smile. “You’re welcome.”

“Oh, by the way! Correct me if I’m wrong, but is this the important job you wanted to talk to me about after I finished cleaning?” Tsugumi asks, following Hanako up the stairs to the school rooftop.

“...Yes. But I’d meant to ask a lot later.”

“I knew it!”

The two girls arrived back on the rooftop, in the same place where Tsugumi’s friends had been standing that day. It still hurt to think that their group was really disbanded for good but… maybe things are just better this way.

“Does this mean that I’ve graduated from toilet cleaning duty then?” the shorter girl joked.

“Not a chance.”

“Aw…”

“I… look forward to it anyway.” Hanako leans on the railings, gazing up at the sky. “Doing things with someone after school, I mean.” Tsugumi looks up at the spirit. Her expression had a sense of melancholy to it. 

“It’s kind of like having a friend, in a way.” Hanako looked up at the clouds. “It takes me back, I suppose…”

Oh.

“Then…” Tsugumi tugs at the ghost’s sleeves. “I’ll call you Hanako-chan, if that’s okay with you! That way, it’d seem more like we’re friends, right?”

The school spirit gapes at the girl, who was smiling softly at her suggestion. Her short, brown hair was swaying gently in the breeze. Hanako returns the smile, nodding slightly.

“Have you decided on a new rumor yet, then?”

“Yup! I’ve got just the thing, it’ll be perfect!”

* * *

It was the end of the school day. Two students were conversing at the bottom of a stairwell.

“Hm? Did you lose something again? That seems to be happening a lot lately, huh.” “If it was the Faeries, you could get yourself killed.”

When your things keep mysteriously disappearing, it might be the work of the Faeries. But you must take care to never look one in the eyes, for it might take your life. But…

Tsugumi walks up to the girls, holding out a small pile of candies to them in her hands. “Here! This should help!”

“Huh? Candy?”

“I heard that having candy on you will keep the Faeries away!” Tsugumi beams. “Then they won’t kill you, and they’ll stop stealing your things.”

“Oh wow, really? I had no idea!”

Tsugumi waves at the two girls and turns around to leave. “I have to go now though, so take care!”

“You’ve been really busy lately, Tsugumi-chan. Is it student council work?”

“Um, I’m… going to see a friend!” She says, ducking into Hanako’s bathroom.

“Going to see a friend…” “In the bathroom?”

In the distance, the Mokke happily accepted the candy offerings that the students began carrying around. While carrying their candies back to the abandoned conference room, they carelessly bumped into someone. 

“Hey!” the purple-haired girl demanded. “Do you guys know a Hanako?”

The Mokke immediately scampered off upon hearing the girl’s yell, dropping their candy in the process. “W...we…we don’t know her!” they cried as they ran.

“Wha- hey!” The girl called out after them, but they were already gone. She crouches down to pick up the dropped candies. “Hmph, fine! I’ll just have to find her myself, then!”

The young girl stands up, holding the candies in one hand and her umbrella in the other. “Just you wait, Hanako!” she yells determinedly. “I’m on my way to exorcise you! Just you wait!”

* * *

The next day, Tsugumi decided to have her lunch on the rooftop with Hanako.

“Here! I brought something for you!” Tsugumi said, handing Hanako a small lunchbox. “It’s a new menu item from my parents’ café!”

Hanako opens up the box, finding a small selection of sandwiches within it. “We thought it might be a good idea to start serving small sandwiches alongside our customers’ drinks,” Tsugumi explains. “Actually… Can ghosts eat? Sorry, I should’ve thought of that beforehand.”

"...I think they taste good.” 

Tsugumi looks back at Hanako, who was nibbling away at one of the sandwiches. She beams at her brightly.

Suddenly, the two are interrupted by a loud thumping noise coming from the rooftop storage shed. There seemed to be a student standing on top of it. “That’s enough!” the figure yelled, pointing at Hanako. “I finally found you, vile villain!”

The girl jumps off the storage shed roof and lands in a three-point landing. As she stands up and brushes the dust off her hands, she tosses aside her hair dramatically. She was shorter than both Hanako and Tsugumi and had curly purple hair tied up into pigtails. She also appeared to be wearing colored contacts, since her eyes looked to be a weird reddish color. Tsugumi noticed that in the girl’s right hand, she held an umbrella with a strange, elaborate handle design. 

“I’m a third-year in the Haneoka middle school division,” she shouts. “You are looking upon the presence of a fallen angel… the one who wields the ultimate forbidden power!” As she says this, the girl strikes a triumphant pose. “Ako Udagawa, at your service! Take your memory of me as a souvenir for your trip into the afterlife!”

“Ako-chan? What are you doing here?” Tsugumi asked, surprised. It'd been a while before she last saw the girl. Being Tomoe's little sister, Ako used to tag along with their group a lot back in middle school no matter where they went. Nowadays, however, she just preferred to hang out with her own friends.

"Tsugu-chin!" Ako exclaimed, equal amounts excited and surprised to see the former. She then began to quickly wave her away in a panicked shooing motion. "Tsugu-chin, get away from there! That ghost you’re next to is really dangerous!"

“Huh? You can see her...?” Tsugumi turns to Hanako. “Hanako-chan, do you two know each other?”

“We’ve never met in person, but if her surname is anything to go by then I’m guessing she’s a member of the Udagawa clan.” 

“The… Udagawa clan?” Were the Udagawas a family of warriors this whole time and Tsugumi just had no idea?

“A long time ago, back when supernaturals were called ‘yokai’ and were a lot more powerful than they were now,” the spirit began explaining. “There were three particular supernaturals that surpassed all the others in terms of power, and were believed to be even more powerful than the Gods.”

Hanako looks over at Ako, who had been eyeing her with suspicion the entire time. “This girl’s ancestor managed to slay one of these three supernaturals.”

“Heheh, that’s right!” Ako grinned proudly at the mention of her family legacy. “My ancestors left my family countless artifacts so that we could continue to slay supernaturals, even long after they died. I will master all of them and use them to protect people from heinous lowlives like you!” She points an accusatory finger at Hanako.

“So! I’m here to exorcise you!”

“Ah, Ako-chan…” Tsugumi began, but Hanako didn’t seem bothered by the younger girl’s declaration at all. Just what was she thinking?

“Prepare for your demise, Hanako!” Ako yells, swinging her umbrella at the latter. Hanako dodged out of the way but managed to get hit on her left shoulder anyway.

“I think you’ll need to try a lot harder if you’re intending on exorcising me, Udagawa-san,” the blue-haired spirit says, grabbing the tip of Ako’s umbrella.

The younger girl stifles a laugh. “Oh yeah? How’s this, then?!” 

As she says this, the umbrella emits an explosion of bright yellow lightning, electrocuting Hanako in the process. Caught off guard by the sudden jolt in electricity, Hanako freezes up and falls to the ground. 

“Hanako-chan!” Tsugumi called, hurriedly running towards her. Ako cackles dramatically at the sight of Hanako slumped on the ground. 

“This is an anti-evil artifact that’s been passed down through my family for generations! Pretty cool, right?!” she says, unsheathing the weapon’s true form from the umbrella shade. It was a golden staff with its tip in the shape of a trident. “It’s a spirit staff that turns the user’s spirit energy into uh... ghost-destroying lightning, I think!”

Ako seemed a little embarrassed at the slight slip-up in her terminology but immediately shakes it off. “And you were actually dumb enough to actually touch it with your bare hands? Hah!”

Ako points the staff at Hanako, who was lying on the ground in pain. “It’s over for you, school spirit!”

Tsugumi couldn’t take it anymore. As Ako charged towards Hanako with her staff, she quickly got between the two and spread out her arms. “Stop it!!” she cried, causing Ako to trip backward at her sudden act of defiance.

“Tsugu-chin, what are you doing? I could’ve really hurt you just now!” Ako says, confused. 

“I’m an assistant of Hanako-chan, but I’m also her friend!” Tsugumi declared as loudly as she could. “And if you do anything else to hurt her, I’ll be _really_ disappointed!”

“Huh…?” Ako’s ‘cool’ persona started to slip ever so slightly. “But… she’s a really dangerous supernatural! So I have to exorcise her for the sake of the school…”

“But Hanako-chan isn’t a bad supernatural!” the brunette countered. “She even saved my life!”

“No, Tsugu-chin! You’ve got it all wrong!” Ako yelled, grabbing the former’s shoulders. “She’s not just any supernatural!”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Listen, it took my grandma all of her strength to seal Hanako away! She’s a really, _really,_ evil spirit!”

Upon noticing Tsugumi’s still perplexed expression, Ako begins to gesture wildly in Hanako’s direction.

"And look! She’s carrying a carving knife around as a weapon! That’s all the proof you need that she used it as a weapon back when she was alive, too!”

“But-”

“She used that knife to _kill_ someone!”

This made Tsugumi stop. She’d wondered why Hanako’s weapon was a knife too rather than some elaborate ghost power, but this…

“No… no! You’re lying!”

“Am not! She’s fooling you, Tsugu-chin! You can’t trust her!” Ako tightens her grip on Tsugumi’s shoulders. “To her, you’re just another p-”

“Ah, so the secret’s out, I see.” 

Hanako was now perfectly awake, but to Tsugumi’s absolute horror she was pointing her carving knife at Ako’s neck, who instinctively backed away in terror.

“I was hoping to keep a secret for just a bit longer, but… this will do, I suppose.” Hanako reaches out a hand for Hakujoudai, who compliantly seats itself just below her neck, forming a long, black cape upon doing so. “You’re quite right, Udagawa-san. I did kill another human being.”

Hanako sharply turns around, her cape billowing behind her in the wind.

“However,” she says, holding out her knife. “God told me that if I can fulfill my duty in the world, then my guilt will be erased.” She looks Ako in the eyes.

"Sorry, Udagawa-san. But I cannot allow you to exorcise me just yet.”

“A-as if I’ll ever listen to you!” Ako cries, rushing forward and swinging at the ghost again.

But this time, instead of letting herself be hit, Hanako simply floats out of the girl’s reach. Every time Ako seemed to get even a little bit closer to her, she simply dodged gracefully out of the way. The younger girl's movements were starting to slow from fatigue.

“Dang it, hold still!” Ako cried. 

“Interesting,” Hanako says, swooping down to look at Ako’s grip on her staff. “Does this not hurt your hands?”

Letting out a yelp, Ako quickly sends out another explosion of lightning. Tsugumi was nowhere near the conflict, yet she could feel the static all the way from where she was standing.

“Mwahaha, You just never learn, huh?!” Ako laughs victoriously, albeit still very much exhausted from the chase. “This time there won’t be anything left of you!”

But to her shock, the smoke clearing didn’t reveal a dying Hanako. Even more surprisingly, she was completely unharmed by the attack.

"Why… why didn’t it work?” Ako gasped. The attack seemed to have taken her a lot of energy to shoot out.

Hanako walks over to the girl, who immediately cowered in fear. But instead of finishing her off, the spirit simply picks up the dropped staff.

“This is a very powerful staff you’ve got here, Udagawa-san,” she says, retrieving a seal from her pocket and sticking it onto the staff. “I suppose I’ll just have to seal this away to prevent any further harm done.”

“Ahhh! What did you do to my staff?!” Ako just about screeched. She tried to scratch the seal off, but to no avail; it was stuck on there for good. She thrusts the staff in Hanako’s direction. “Take it off right now! Uh, please.”

“Sorry, but I cannot allow you to interfere like this again,” Hanako sighs. “More importantly…”

The spirit glides over to Ako and takes ahold of one of her hands, the girl letting out a small cry of pain as she did so. Her hands were completely blistered, with some of the blisters having burst during the fight and were now bleeding. 

“You harmed yourself every time you made an attack. It doesn’t look like you know how to use the staff’s power properly yet.”

“So?!”

“Using powers that you don’t understand will only lead to ruin. You do understand this, yes?”

“I don’t care! As long as I can protect everyone, I don’t care how injured I get!”

“You don’t care, huh?” Hanako gives Ako a small, but genuine smile. “You’ll make a fine exorcist someday, Udagawa-san. There’s no need to rush.” She lets Hakujoudai loose, her cape disappearing in the process. “I’ll be looking forward to the day you can finally exorcise me.”

“You… you’re looking forward to it? But why-”

“But as of right now, I’m afraid you just aren’t quite there yet,” Hanako says, before lightly tapping the girl on the forehead. Before she could say anything in response, Ako slumps to the ground, fast asleep.

“Hanako-chan! Ako-chan! Are you two alright?” Tsugumi yells, running towards the two girls. Upon seeing Ako lying on the ground, she shoots a worried expression at Hanako. Sensing her concerns, Hanako lays a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, she’ll wake up in an hour or two. All I did was temporarily put her to sleep.”

“Thank goodness…” Tsugumi says, relieved. “But… shouldn’t we hide the staff? She might decide to come back after you!”

“That won’t be a problem. I limited the amount of power the staff can exert, so I doubt she’d be able to do me any harm.” Hanako crosses her arms, looking Tsugumi directly in her eyes. “Are you concerned for me?”

“Of course I am! We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“Friends…” Hanako looks away. “So you can even allow yourself to get along with a murderer, Hazawa-san?”

“I…” 

“I’m just kidding. But we should probably get back before Udagawa-san wakes up.”

“Ah, of course!”

* * *

The radio broadcast is once again turned back on.

_Hey, have you heard of this rumor yet?_

_There is a rule regarding a staircase near the art room that you must never disobey: you must never set foot on the fourth step. For if you do…_

_You’ll be taken over to the other side._

The broadcast is shut off.


	4. Chapter 4

Ever since the rooftop confrontation, Tsugumi couldn’t seem to get the incident out of her head. On that day, Hanako had said to her,  _ “So you can even allow yourself to get along with a murderer, Hazawa-san?” _

At the time, Hanako had seemed… angry? No, that couldn’t have been it. But then… what else could it have been? She’d looked so defeated and so far away from everything that it hurt Tsugumi to see her in that way, murderer or not. She knew that she should’ve said something in response, but what exactly could she have said to something like that? If only there was something she could do to help her…

“...Tsugumi-san!”

Tsugumi’s train of thought was disrupted by Eve’s call. They were staying after class to water the class’ plants like they usually did.

“You’re always staring off into space, Tsugumi-san.” Eve smiled cheerfully at her. “You’re the student council vice-president, aren’t you? Is that what’s been bothering you?”

“Ahah, I wish…” Tsugumi attempted to return the smile, but instead just ended up looking more bothered than she was previously.

Eve stared at her, concerned. Then she gets an idea. “Oh, I know! How about I tell you another school mystery rumor? Have you heard about this one yet?” 

_ “No. 2 of Haneoka’s Seven Mysteries: The Misaki Stairs. _

_ You must take care to never step foot on the fourth step of this staircase. For if you do, you’ll be taken over to the other side. Your body will be torn to thousands, if not a million pieces. Or, you’ll just be lost forever within the world’s labyrinth-like structure, your body never to be found ever again.  _

_ Whichever fatality comes first. _

_ They say that at twilight you can see the blood of the victims drip down the stairs, with seemingly no visible source.” _

“Wh...w-which staircase is this…?” Tsugumi asked, a little shaken.

“The broadcast says that it’s staircase B, in front of the art room. Apparently lots of kids say that they’ve already seen pools of blood there!” Eve replies, very shaken.

Strangely, it seems like all of Eve’s stories about the mysteries have been coming true as of late. Tsugumi wasn’t sure if she was ready to handle another one just yet, especially not such a gruesome one like this.

“You know, Tsugumi-san, I’m not a very big fan of scary stories like these…” Eve says. “But if it cheers you up, I’ll tell you as many as you’d like!”

“Ah, Eve-chan, you really don’t have t-”

Just then, their homeroom teacher appears at the classroom door. “Wakamiya-san, don’t forget about your guidance counseling meeting today in the art room!” he says, holding Eve’s school report in his hand.

“Oh! I completely forgot! I’ll be right there!” Eve said hurriedly, quickly putting down her watering can and rushing towards the door. “Don’t worry, Tsugumi-san! I’ll try and find more scary stories for you, so cheer up okay?”

_ ‘I appreciate your help, Eve-chan, but you really don’t have to put yourself through all that just to try and cheer me up…’  _ she thought to herself. In the corner of her eye, she saw that one of the flowers they’d been watering had finally started to bloom. 

_ ‘Oh! I’ll have to tell Eve-chan about the flowers next time I see her,’  _ she thought joyfully.  _ ‘She worked so hard to take care of these flowers, she’ll be really happy to see it finally bloom.’ _

* * *

_ ‘N...no...no way. The flowers… they’re gone!’ _

The following day, upon entering her homeroom, Tsugumi was shocked to discover that the flowers she and Eve had worked so hard to raise were all gone, a couple of dusty textbooks instead taking its place. At first, she thought that someone must’ve put them away somewhere until she saw a small gathering of Mokke near the table. 

“Hey…” she whispered to them quietly, out of the earshot of her classmates. “Did you guys take the flowers that were here?” 

In response, the Mokke just stared at her blankly as if they had no idea what she was talking about. No, it couldn’t have been them; there was plenty of candy to go around in their class to ward them away from stealing anything too noticeable. Besides, an entire three desks’ worth of flower pots would be pretty hard to miss. 

That’s when she noticed that much like the flowers, Eve’s desk was also missing; there was just an empty spot where her desk should’ve been. 

“I’m starting homeroom, everyone!” the teacher said as he walked in through the door. That’s right, he was the last person to have seen Eve yesterday! He should have an idea of where she was, right?

“Uh, excuse me!” Tsugumi calls out to him. “Do you know where Eve-chan’s flowers went?”

“...Flowers?” the teacher asks, puzzled.

“Um, Eve-chan and I were on watering duty for the class flowers, so I was wondering-”

“Hazawa-san, are you feeling alright? There’s no one in our class with that name.”

From behind her, Tsugumi could hear the quiet murmurs of her fellow classmates. “Eve-chan? Who’s that?” they said. “Never heard of her…”

Overwhelmed and unable to take any more of the situation, Tsugumi ran out of the classroom despite the teacher’s protests.

_ ‘What’s gotten into everyone?’  _ she thought as she ran down the hall. She had to get answers; if anyone would know what was going on, it’d be Hanako. She had to get to her bathroom as soon as she could.  _ ‘Eve-chan…’  _

Tsugumi scrolled down through her phone’s contact list until she reached Eve’s name. She dialed the number and held her breath in anticipation for a response. 

_ ‘Sorry, but the number you have dialed is currently not in service. Please check the number and…’ _

No luck.

_ ‘I know, I’ll call her house!’  _ Tsugumi concluded. _ ‘Her parents have got to know something about this, right?’ _

Tsugumi then proceeded to dial Eve’s home number. The phone seemed to ring for a few seconds too long, but eventually, someone picked up.

“Hello, this is the Wakamiya household,” says Eve’s mother, her thick accent showing through. “Who is it?”

“Uh, hi! This is Tsugumi! Eve-chan wasn’t at school today, so I was just wondering if she was feeling alright? Does she have a cold, or-”

“Um,” Eve’s mother interrupts. “I’m sorry, but you must have the wrong number... We don’t have anyone living here with that name.”

_ ‘No. No way. Not even her mother remembers her…?’  _ Tsugumi panicked. She quickly apologizes to Eve’s mother and continued on her route to Hanako’s bathroom. Yesterday, the teacher said that she had a counseling meeting in front of the art room. She couldn’t have used the staircase from the rumors, could she...?

Not watching where she was going, Tsugumi barrels straight into another student, knocking herself to the floor.

“Wow, Tsugu, I never really thought of you as the clumsy type,” said a familiar voice. 

“I’m really sorry, I-” Tsugumi stops upon seeing who it was that she bumped into. “Huh? Moca-chan?!”

“At your service~,” Moca says in a jokey sing-song voice. She extended out her hand to Tsugumi, who took it in return to lift herself back onto her feet. 

“You should really be more careful, Tsugu,” Moca continued, picking up Tsugumi’s phone from the floor and handing it back to her. “Here you go, free of charge~”

“Ah, thank you Moca-chan, but I really have to go right now!” she says apologetically, taking her phone and immediately taking off. In fact, she was so focused on trying to get to Hanako’s bathroom that she didn’t notice Moca slipping something into her blazer pocket.

* * *

“Hm? Your friend’s missing?”

Hanako was sitting on the window sill, playing cards with a couple of Mokke. It looks like she’s winning. “Hmmm…” she says, thinking. “Have you tried going to the police first?”

“No, but… there’s just something really weird about all of this,” Tsugumi says. “All of her belongings are gone, and everyone’s acting like she never existed at all…”

Suddenly, loud footsteps sounded from down the hall, growing closer and closer to the bathroom. When the two girls turned towards the noise, they found Ako standing at the entrance, panting. 

“Hanako!!” she cried. “What did you do to my friends?! Where are they and why does no one remember them??”

“Ako-chan, you too?” Tsugumi asked. So Eve wasn’t the only student to have gone missing that day?

“... I see,” Hanako says after Ako and Tsugumi had both thoroughly explained what they’d gone through earlier that day. “Incidents of students fading from existence and rumors about a strange staircase… I might have an idea of what’s going on here.”

“I knew it!” Ako yelled. Before she could accuse Hanako of anything though, Tsugumi interrupted her. “Where did Eve-chan and the others go?” she asked.

“In this school, there are seven locations that connect this plane to the underworld. That staircase is one of them. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s where the missing students ended up.”

“The… underworld?” Tsugumi inquired.

“Formally, it’s called a ‘boundary’. The moment a human crosses through it, their entire being is wiped from existence,” Hanako clarifies. “Although, there are a few exceptions to this, seeing as neither you nor Udagawa-san seems to be affected by them.”

“Boundaries… I think my sister told me about those!” Ako piped up. “It’s like a huge ocean that connects the two shores of the living world and the underworld!” The girl tugs on a loose strand of her hair. “I think she also said that it’s where things end up when they have nowhere else to go, like spirits, supernaturals, stuff like that.”

“Yes, that’s exactly right,” Hanako says, clapping. Ako smiles widely at the congratulation, seemingly forgetting her supposed hatred for supernaturals.

“But...“ Tsugumi taps Hanako’s arm, getting her attention. “Can the people who go there ever come back…?” She was almost on the verge of crying at this point.

The school spirit pauses, finally deciding to gently pat Tsugumi on the head. “Don’t worry, I’ll help you get your friend back out. It’s my job to maintain a proper relationship between humans and supernaturals, after all.” 

Tsugumi nods, but was still a little upset at the possibility of her friend being dead. 

“You’ll be helping me out, too, of course,” Hanako adds.

“I… I’m coming too!” Ako declares. “You were gonna take Tsugu-chin to the boundary, right? I wanna come!”

“Udagawa-san, this isn’t a field trip. If you are unable to take this seriously-”

“I am being serious!” Ako pleads. “Please let me come, I promise I won’t get in your way!” 

“Ako-chan, why do you want to come anyway?” Tsugumi asked. She wasn’t too sure she liked the idea of putting one of her best friend’s younger sister in danger like this. “You know it’ll be really dangerous in there, right?”

“I-I know that!” Ako assured. “I just… I dunno, I’ve just always wanted to see the inside of a boundary…?”

Hanako sighs deeply and crosses her arms. Tsugumi noticed she liked to do that a lot; a reflex, maybe? 

“Alright, you can come. But don’t blame me if something happens to you.”

“Yay! Thank you so much, I won’t let you down! Hehe, the Great Demon Princess Ako is finally about to fulfill her destiny… as the returning ruler of the Netherworld!”

“...Am I supposed to know what that means?”

Watching Ako and Hanako go back-and-forth, Tsugumi couldn’t help but smile at their interactions. She was starting to feel a lot better about going into the underworld to save their classmates.

_ ‘Eve-chan… I promise that we’re going to get you out of there.’ _

* * *

“Wh… what the heck is this?!”

It was twilight outside, and the three girls were currently standing in front of the infamous ‘Misaki Stairs’. According to the rumors, you were supposed to see blood dripping down the steps at around this exact time.

And the rumors were exactly right. There was, in fact, large pools of blood forming on the stairs, seemingly out of nowhere. It was truly a disturbing sight to behold. Just exactly whose blood was this, anyway?

“Alright. On the count of four, let’s all ascend the fourth step together,” Hanako said calmly, unfazed by the horrifying sight before her. “I’m going to start counti-”

“One! Two!” Ako called out each number individually, ignoring Hanako’s commands and already skipping ahead of the other two girls.

“Udagawa-san. I said to  _ wait _ .” Hanako scolded, quickly trying to catch up with the perky middle-schooler but not before grabbing Tsugumi’s hand and leading her up the stairs alongside her.

“Three!”

This was it. They were really about to descend into the underworld and probably die immediately upon entering. They were going to be chopped up into a million little pieces, just like the rumors said, and-

“Four!”

Miraculously, the three girls managed to step on the fourth step at the same time. Without any sort of delay at all, they were immediately transported to an entirely new world; everything was pitch black save for the lanterns illuminating scattered around the entire realm, with endless rows of abandoned shops lining both sides of the stairway. No doubt, they were now in the underworld.

“Whoa! This place is super cool!” Ako exclaims excitedly. “Kinda creepy, but super cool!!”

“Hanako-chan, is this…?” Tsugumi asked hesitantly.

“The Misaki Stairs,” Hanako confirmed. “Though I must say… she’s really gone a bit too far this time.”

Ako and Tsugumi looked at each other, not sure what to make of the implication that there was a singular person behind all of the student disappearances.

“Let’s get moving,” Hanako says to the girls. “The missing students are most likely around here somewhere.”

And so, the group began ascending the stairs that lay before them. There were loose items scattered all around them, most of which seemed to have been here for a really long time. Perhaps the most unsettling part of this whole endeavor was the seemingly endless amount of dolls sitting anywhere that had free room; they had no facial features but had a single piece of paper stuck to their head with the number 2 written on it. Tsugumi decided to not look at them, lest she had nightmares about them for the rest of her life.

The floor of the realm was also completely submerged in water; this must’ve been the boundary that Ako and Hanako were talking about. The ocean separating this life and the next. Tsugumi reaches down to touch the water but immediately retracts her hand after scales began to form quickly. 

_ ‘I’ll have to be careful not to slip and fall here,’  _ Tsugumi concluded.  _ ‘It looks like my feet are okay for now, but anything else and I could risk turning into a fish…’ _

“Hey, Hanako-san, why isn’t there anything here?” Ako called back down; she’d taken to walking far ahead of the rest of the group. “I thought something was supposed to tear us apart!”

“Yes, but it wouldn’t do it right away,” the school legend replies. “As the Seven Mysteries, it’s our job to not only watch over the other supernaturals of the school but also to be known by as many people as possible. And what better way to be remembered than to circulate so much fear around the school that we’re never forgotten?”

Once again, Ako and Tsugumi shared another Look of Concern. No matter how twisted her views were, at the end of the day, Hanako was still a supernatural.

Possibly sensing doubt from the two, Hanako clears her throat. “...But still. Number 2 has gone a bit too far this time. That’s why we have to hurry up and stop this nonsense before it gets too out of hand-”

_ RIIIING RIIING _

The deafening ring of a rotary dial phone rang out from behind them, making Ako and Tsugumi jump. The group stared at the phone for a while, but the ringing seemed like it was going to go on forever. Finally, Tsugumi decided that she would be the one to make the first move and pick up the phone.

“Uh, hello?” Tsugumi asked into the receiver, the other two girls huddled closely on both sides. “Who’s speaking?”

Static. And then, a voice.

“...My name is Misaki.”


	5. Chapter 5

“...My name is Misaki.”

The owner of the voice sounded young; possibly even young enough to be around the same age as them. “I used a student at the schoolhouse at the top of these stairs… everything was fine just the way they were…

...until I was murdered, right in the spot where you’re standing.”

Tsugumi felt a chill run down her spine. A student died? In exactly the same place she was standing?

“Hey… would you please look for my body…?” the voice says after a pause. “I can’t do anything as I am right now, you see…”

“Um! Hang on! Where’s Eve-chan and the others?” Tsugumi attempted but to no avail; the voice simply ignored her. 

“First… my right arm. That is the arm I use to take notes in class…” the voice pauses for a moment. “Please hurry… class will be starting soon. I’d rather not be late.”

_Click!_

“...She hung up.”

At the top of the stairs was a giant gate; next to it was a small shrine, along with a giant hourglass. As the voice hung up the phone, the hourglass began to drain, starting the first challenge.

“Huh? Where are we going to find a girl’s right arm?” Ako asks, a little freaked out.

“It’s okay, Ako-chan! Let’s just start looking around, I’m sure we’ll find something!” Tsugumi reassures her. She looks at the gate sitting at the top of the stairway, gesturing towards it. “I think if we put something in that shrine up there, we’ll get to move on further into the boundary.”

“If you say so…” Ako trails off, gripping her staff even tighter. “But can’t we just burst through the gates on our own? Wouldn’t that be a lot easier than ju-”

“I wouldn’t recommend doing that if I were you,” Hanako interjects. “We Seven Mysteries each have our own designated domains. In these domains, we’re virtually unbeatable by any outsiders. For me, it would be the girls’ bathroom.” She looks back at Ako, her expression suddenly growing dark. 

“There’s no telling what would happen to you if you disobeyed the rules of Number 2’s realm.”

That managed to drive the point home for Ako.

“Okaay theeen!! Let’s hurry up and look for this arm!!!” she yells, not wanting to find out what would happen if the hourglass ran out of time. The other two girls followed suit, rummaging through their surroundings for anything that might even slightly resemble an arm.

After quite some time, the three regrouped to share their findings. Ako had found something that could only be described as an arm torn off from a monster costume, Tsugumi found a wooden arm, and Hanako found a freakishly long mannequin arm. The three looked down at their findings in dismay.

“You… you guys don’t suppose we could actually use any of these, do you?” Tsugumi says warily. “Are we supposed to be looking for a specific arm, or…?”

“I think any arm would do in this situation,” Hanako theorized. “It’s not as if we have a wide selection of them, after all.”

“If so, then shouldn’t we pick the most realistic arm someone would have?” Ako suggested, holding up her selected arm. “I think this one would make _anyone_ , ghost or not, look cool! Something like, a necromancer hailing from the depths of an endless abyss, hehe…”

“...Necromancer? Endless abyss? You’re not making any sense, Udagawa-san.” Hanako shakes her head. “I think my choice is the best option here. It’s the most life-like, in my opinion.”

It really wasn’t; the arm was almost the same length as Ako’s entire body. What the original mannequin might’ve looked like before it was broken apart, Tsugumi wanted absolutely no part in knowing. 

All of a sudden, a loud voice begins to screech, echoing all around the domain. **“Time’s up!”** it repeated over and over again. The dolls that were previously sitting lifelessly around them began to move, giggling as if the three’s potential demise was somehow a joke to be laughed at.

 **“It’s time for class!”** the dolls seemed to laugh in unison. 

“Ah! Look!” Tsugumi said, pointing at the hourglass. It looks like the sand in it had run out while they were deciding on which arm to use. “But… as long as we put the arm in the shrine, we should be fine, right?”

 **“Which one of you is running late for class?”** a voice boomed, amongst the choruses of creepy doll laughter. Before the girls could react, a giant pair of scissors materialized behind them. “Get down!” Hanako cried, forcing the other two to duck down with her as the scissors snapped its blades shut almost immediately.

“W-what do we do now?!” Tsugumi stammered. Hanako simply grabs the other girls’ arms, and says nothing but a single word: “Run.”

The trio raced to the top of the stairs as fast as they could, with the scissors following closely behind. As they approached the top, they realized that they were about to be trapped into a dead end; the gate was still closed.

“It’s fine!” Hanako yelled. “As long as we get an arm in the shrine, we should be okay!”

Suddenly, Tsugumi felt something tugging at her legs. She looked down, only to find the small dolls latching onto her limbs like leeches. 

**“The one who is tardy… is YOU!”** they laughed, tightening their grip. Tsugumi tried her best to shake them off, but it was no use; she couldn’t move her legs at all.

“Hazawa-san!” Hanako screamed from the top of the stairway. “Above you!”

“Wh-?” Tsugumi dared to look up, and found the giant scissors just above her neck, poised as if they were about to snap shut. “Ah-”

As the blades snapped shut, Hanako dove down towards her, pulling her out of range of the scissors. “Stay here,” she said to Tsugumi as she took out her knife and headed back towards the scissors, which was preparing to strike again. With one swift cut, Hanako sliced the bolt connecting the two blades, and the scissors fell into the boundary’s water with a great splash.

“Hanako-chan! You did it!” Tsugumi cheered. 

“No, we’re not quite done here yet.” Hanako glares coldly at the scissors, which has since risen out of the water and was beginning to slowly reassemble itself. “Udagawa-san! Now!”

“On it!” Ako cried, throwing her monster arm into the shrine as hard as she could. The moment that it entered the shrine, the giant gate cracked opened and the trio sped through it at record speed, the scissors only mere centimeters away from catching up with them. Sighing a huge breath of relief, the girls leaned against the gate, exhausted. 

What laid before them, however, seemed to just be what looked like endless flights of more stairs, more gates, and more dolls. But more importantly, their classmates seemed nowhere to be found.

The moment of tranquility didn’t last long, however; barely even a minute after they'd made it through the gate, the phone began to ring again. This time, it was Hanako that decided to pick up the phone. The girls huddled around the phone, waiting for an answer.

“My left arm…” the voice said. “Please help me find my left arm… every day after school, I use my hands to sew dolls for the younger kids and my siblings.”

...Siblings?

“Please hurry… class will be starting s-”

“Number 2,” Hanako says sternly. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

The voice from the phone stops talking. “...Class will be starting soon,” it says quietly, before hanging up.

“Hanako-chan, do you know her?”

“Not personally. But we are both school mysteries, so I’ve spoken to her a couple of times before.”

The click of the hourglass turning signaled to them that it was time to get moving.

“Ughh, we have to do all of that _again_?” Ako groaned. “Hey, Hanako-san! Isn’t there another way we can deal with Number 2?”

“Another way?”

“Yeah! Like, a weakness or something! Something that we can use against her!”

Hanako nods. “Yes, there is.”

“What is it?” Tsugumi asks.

“Us Seven Mysteries all have a common weakness; our divine Yorishiro.” Hanako picks up a small toy car from the ground. “They’re objects of personal importance that give us our powers.” 

The school legend opens the panel on the bottom of the car, taking out its batteries. “You could say it’s something like a battery. Once you take away our Yorishiro, our spiritual power will be decreased dramatically.”

“Alright, then!” Ako says, excited at the possibility of finally getting to do some exorcist work. “So where do we find this divine Norishiro?!”

“Yorishiro,” Tsugumi corrects her.

“Yeah, Yorishiro! Where do we find it?”

“It’ll most likely be within the innermost reaches of Number 2’s domain. I suspect that we’ll find it some ways behind that gate,” Hanako says. “Which means…”

The trio looks up at the infinite flights of stairs situated above them, dismayed.

“...Okay! Who’s ready to do some climbing?!” Ako yells, punching the air enthusiastically. Tsugumi and Hanako do the same, less energetically.

And so, the girls continued to move on forward with each challenge, looking for whichever body part the Misaki Stairs had asked them to find.

“...Next, my right leg…” 

“My left leg.” 

“My torso.” 

“My eyes.”

“My ears.”

“My head.”

Tsugumi shut the final shrine doors; after what seemed like hours, the trio had finally finished collecting all of the requested body parts. The gate opened, and bright white light seeped through the opening. But instead of more stairs, the group was pleased to discover that the area beyond the doors seemed to be completely flat.

“Yeah! We did it!” Ako cheered, high-fiving Tsugumi and Hanako. 

_‘We’re almost there,’_ Tsugumi thought. ‘ _But… I can’t help but feel like something’s off.’_

She watches as Ako and Hanako approach the gate, Ako doing so with more energy than the latter. Hanako seemed to have noticed Tsugumi was trailing behind and held out a hand to her, which she promptly took.

_‘If Number 2 was making us find her body because she couldn’t do anything without it…’_

The girls walk through the gates and into the light.

_‘... then who was the one making the calls?’_


	6. Chapter 6

The girls squint their eyes, allowing them to adjust to the drastic change in lighting. Beyond the gate was a flat walkway, with the boundary’s water flowing off of it into a seemingly endless abyss. The sky was pitch black, the only source of light coming from the twinkling stars and the gate entrance. This must be the ‘innermost reaches’ that Hanako had been talking about earlier.

In the distance, Tsugumi could make out the shape of a humanoid figure sitting in a chair. As the trio got closer, what they saw was perhaps the scariest thing they’d seen on this trip yet.

“Ahhh! Are those all the pieces we collected?!” Ako screamed.

The figure was made up of all of the misplaced body parts they’d been forced to collect over the past few hours; a monster arm, an unusually muscular marble torso, a broom where the left arm should’ve been, two bicycle wheels for legs, and a teddy bear’s head. It was as if they’d recreated Frankenstein, but instead of gathering the best possible body parts they’d just gotten all of their necessities from a landfill. Yikes.

“...Could you not have gotten a better head, Udagawa-san?”

“But you said it didn’t matter as long as we could move forward!”

_Splash...splash...splash…_

They froze. There were footsteps sounding off from behind them, and it was slowly getting closer and closer to where they were. 

“Ah, you’ve finally made it!” a voice said. It was the one they’d heard on the phone.

The trio spun around to meet the owner of the voice. What met their eyes was a young girl with light blue hair and purple eyes, and wore a lavender-colored floral kimono with a white haori draped over it. In her hands, she held a lantern, illuminating the waters around her. She smiled pleasantly at the three, waving at them with her free hand. 

Suddenly, upon seeing the figure in the chair, she dropped her lantern and broke into a sprint. Rushing past the trio, she grabbed the body’s weirdly muscular shoulders in her gloved hands, not saying a single word.

“Oh, umm, about that doll…” Ako began.

“Ahaha, believe it or not, we did try our best to collect all of the body parts…“ Tsugumi says. 

The girl remains silent. She whips her head around to look at them, wearing an indescribable expression on her face, making Ako and Tsugumi shudder. Then, her expression completely changes.

“Ah, it’s such a wonderful body!” she cried, smiling. Her voice was just as calming as her smile.

“H-huh?” Tsugumi was confused. She thought _that was_ wonderful? “You’re… okay with it?

“I was at such a loss, you see…” the girl says, shaking Tsugumi’s hands. “I didn’t really know anything about what human bodies were made of, so I thought that the best thing to do was to just ask one about it!”

The girl turns back to the disfigured body, cupping its bear head in her hands. “This is nothing like any of the other bodies I’ve made… I’m sure it’ll work this time. You think so too, don’t you, Misaki-chan?” The girl cups her right hand and blows a golden dust onto the figure’s head. “Come on, can you try walking for me?”

As if on command, the figure clumsily stands up, its unusual body parts creaking with every movement. It raises its head to look at the trio, then attempts to take a step towards them. Upon the very first step, however, the figure immediately collapses on itself, falling apart as it hit the ground with a splash. It was no longer moving after that.

“A-ah, I see…” the girl says, walking over to the broken body. She picked its head, staring at it sadly. “It didn’t work…”

“Oh, um,” Tsugumi called out to her. “H-have you seen any other students pass through here? Do you have any idea where they could be?”

“Other? Oh… are you talking about the kids that failed?” The girl gestures to the space behind her. “They’re all around you.”

Tsugumi peers at the area the girl gestured to, her hand immediately flying to her mouth in shock. It was a pile of mannequin bodies slumped over each other, with huge scissors stabbing into them. The mannequins were all wearing Haneoka’s uniform and had a slip of paper covering their faces just like the dolls from the challenges. It seemed like there were hundreds of bodies in the pile; just exactly how many kids had gone missing under right their noses and no one even had no idea they were gone?

As Tsugumi looked closer at the pile, she could see that one of the dolls had white hair tied into braids, held together with teal ribbons. It was Eve.

“A-ah…” Tsugumi shivered at the sight. She ran shakily towards Eve. “Eve-chan! Eve-chan, wake up!” 

She took Eve by the shoulders, shaking her. “I tried my best to save you, but I was too late…” She shook the mannequin harder. “Come on, Eve-chan! Wake up!”

The force from Tsugumi’s shaking was enough to make Eve’s head tumble cleanly off her shoulders.

“Ah…” Tears began forming in her eyes. This couldn’t be happening.

“I’m sorry to have to resort to this, but…” the kimono-clad girl raised a pair of scissors from the pile, pointing its blades at Tsugumi’s neck. “I’m afraid I’ll have to tear you apart, just like rumors say. Sorry…”

“Tsugu-chin!” Ako called, sliding in just in time to block the scissors’ blades from hitting her friend’s neck with her arm. “Tsugu-chin, are you oka-”

_POOF!_

Just then, Ako felt a weird sensation spread through her arm; it felt strangely numb and didn’t hurt at all despite having just been hit by an enormous pair of scissor blades. She looked down at her arm and her jaw fell down in shock.

“W-what?! It turned into a doll’s arm?!”

Hanako swoops down beside the pair, her knife already out. “Looks like getting hit by the scissors turns you into a doll,” she observes. "You'd better be more careful from now on."

“Wh- How are we supposed to fight like this?!” Ako cries, mourning the loss of her flesh arm. “Oh, wait! I know! Hanako-san, do that thing you did before on the roof! Just transform and use your ghost powers to-”

“Unfortunately, I cannot,” Hanako says. “This is Number 2’s domain. Unless I have her explicit permission, I cannot use Hakujoudai’s power.”

“Dang it!”

“Of course, it’d be different if we could find her divine Yorishiro, but it doesn’t seem like it’s here.”

“Huh?! Then what do we-”

“Sorry… please try and hold still,” Number 2 interrupts. She swings her scissors again at Ako, who managed to duck out of the way just in time. 

“Just try to keep her busy for now,” Hanako says. “I’ll deal with Hazawa-san over here.”

“Got it!” the middle-schooler affirms, leading Number 2 away from the two.

Hanako turns her attention to Tsugumi, who was cradling Eve’s headless mannequin body in her arms, sobbing. “Hazawa-san,” Hanako says softly. “Are you really going to give up so soon? Even though she’s still alive?”

Tsugumi looks up at her, confused.

“This world is the boundary between life and death. While it is true that nothing can come to life here, nothing can die here either.” Hanako offers a hand to Tsugumi. “In this world, the one who holds the most power is the one that doesn’t give up.”

Tsugumi blinks and wipes away her tears. She takes Hanako’s hand determinedly. “I won’t give up! I’ll do anything to save Eve-chan!”

“...Anything?”

Wait.

Hanako leads Tsugumi to the edge of the flooded walkway, tying a long rope around her waist.

What?

“H-Hanako-chan? What are you doing?” Tsugumi asks, a bit shaken by the sight of the endless abyss.

“Number 2’s Yorishiro obviously isn’t here, which means that this must not be the innermost reaches,” Hanako explains. “So if it’s not at the very top where we are, then it can only be at the very bottom.”

“W-wait, you don’t mean-”

“I’m sorry to have to put you through this, Hazawa-san, but we’re all counting on you.” Hanako loosens her grip on Tsugumi's hand, causing her to free fall down into the abyss. The last thing Tsugumi could remember before she fell was watching Hanako run back off towards the fight with Number 2.

* * *

“...She’s dead.” “You think so?”

Tsugumi awoke, feeling something touching her cheek. Looking up, she saw a bright blue sky with trees and a torii directly overhead. There was a small group of five Mokke gathered around her, prodding her with their ears to make sure she wasn’t dead.

“I’m… not dead…?” Tsugumi muttered. Seeing that she was awake, the Mokke scattered and ran off.

Tsugumi raised her hand to her face, feeling a formation of scales in various places. The ‘endless abyss’ must’ve not been a deep pit at all, but rather just a large body of the boundary’s water. She must’ve turned into a fish while she was in there and then turned back into a human upon landing in… wherever this was.

 _‘The atmosphere is so different here compared to everywhere else…’_ Tsugumi thought as she looked around. There was a stone stairway path beyond the torii, as well as a forest right next to it. _‘Could this be the innermost reaches?’_

Tsugumi stood up and dusted her hands off on her skirt. _‘I need to hurry up and find Number 2’s divine Yorishiro!’_ she thought as she ran through the torii. As she stepped onto the stone walkway, she tripped on a loose brick and stumbled into a wooden desk, sending books and papers flying. Wait… a desk?

Tsugumi looked at the pile of papers around her; they seemed to be paper used in those older schoolbooks. Suddenly, her eyes land on a larger conspicuous workbook with the words, ‘Top Secret! Please Don’t Read’ written on its cover. This was... super suspicious.

Despite the request on its cover, Tsugumi flipped open the workbook. The first page read, “ _Todae I scared a stoodent. Whoops.”_ Written right below it, in much neater handwriting was, “ _Don’t worry. It wasn’t your fault. -Misaki”_

Tsugumi continued to flip through the book’s contents. “ _Misaki-chan_ _toht_ _taught me how to maeke dolls todaey. Thank you,”_ another page said. Much like the first page, there was a little note from ‘Misaki’ right below it. _“You’re welcome. -Misaki,”_ it said.

Then, Tsugumi noticed a piece of paper sticking out from the side of the book. She flipped to the page containing the paper; it was a class photo of a teacher with his students. On the right-hand side of the photo, there stood a stone fox statue and a girl with dark shoulder-length hair wearing a navy-colored kimono. The girl’s left hand was placed on the fox’s head as if she were patting it.

 _“Today I took a ‘photo’ with Misaki-chan and the other students,”_ the page wrote. The book’s owner seemed to be getting better and better at writing as time went on.

Tsugumi looked at the dark-haired girl in the photo. Was this the ‘Misaki-chan’ Number 2 had mentioned back upstairs? That confirmed her suspicions; Number 2 and Misaki were two entirely different people. Had Misaki been teaching this girl how to read and write? 

Tsugumi continued flipping through the book.

_“Misaki-chan gave me some fabric scissors today. She said that I could use them to make as many dolls as I wanted. I’ll put them in the shrine to keep them safe. Thank you, Misaki-chan._

_It was nothing. -Misaki"_

_“Misaki-chan ate lunch with me today. She’s so sweet._

_You’re making me embarrassed… -Misaki"_

_“It rained today. Misaki-chan came over and held an umbrella over me even though she ended up getting wet. I love how caring she is._

_As long as you’re happy, I don't mind. -Misaki"_

_“Misaki-chan didn’t come today. I just made dolls and watched people come and go all day.”_

“Huh? That’s weird…” Tsugumi mutters. “This page doesn’t have a note from Misaki-chan on it.”

The next page. _“Misaki-chan didn’t come today either.”_

And the next. _“Still no Misaki-chan.”_

_“No Misaki-chan.”_

_“No Misaki-chan.”_

_“No Misaki-chan.”_

A chill ran down Tsugumi’s spine. All of the pages just kept on repeating the same thing; “No Misaki-chan.” Had something horrible happened to Misaki?

Finally, one of the pages had something different written on it.

 _“I heard a rumor today,”_ it wrote. _“Someone had an accident on these stairs the other day. A student slipped on the stairs and died.”_

Tsugumi’s eyes widened in horror, her hand flying to cover her mouth in shock.

 _“I wonder what ‘dying’ feels like. I_ _’ll have to ask Misaki-chan the next time I see her.”_

Tsugumi sped through the rest of the book. Flipping to the very last page, she found the book’s final diary entry.

_“I don’t think Misaki-chan is going to come back..._

_All I can do at this point is to make Misaki-chan.”_

Tsugumi’s thoughts flashed back to their endeavors back upstairs. The disfigured body they created. The pile of Haneoka student mannequins. Their hunt for body parts throughout the boundary. Could this mean…?

“W-what are you doing?” said a voice from behind her. The sky grew dark; Number 2 had arrived.

“...You wrote this book, didn’t you?” Tsugumi asks her.

“Yes, I did.”

“But… you’re not Misaki-chan.”

“I’m... collecting parts for her body,” Number 2 replied. “I thought it’d be easier to explain if I just said I was Misaki-chan.”

Tsugumi turned around. “You did all those horrible things to Eve-chan and the other students just to try and bring Misaki-chan back from the dead, didn’t you?”

Number 2 smiled sadly. “That’s right,” she says. Just then, dolls began to rise out of the ground and latched themselves onto Tsugumi’s legs, just as they’d done upstairs.

“Y-you…” She couldn’t move her legs. Once again, she was held in place by the dolls. “You liked Misaki-chan, didn’t you? You know she’ll be upset with you if she found out what you’ve been doing!”

Number 2 looked down at the ground. “I know that,” she says quietly. She then abruptly pins Tsugumi against a tree using her scissors.

“Misaki-chan was such a kind and caring person... if she finds out that I’ve been doing this to her classmates, she’ll definitely be really mad with me…” Number 2 positions the scissor blades above Tsugumi’s neck. “Someone like her didn’t deserve to die… I just want her to continue living out the life she never got to live!”

“Aren’t… aren’t there any rules against bringing someone back to life?”

“Of course there are!” the blue-haired spirit cries, gearing up to slam the blades shut. “But I don’t care… I’d do anything to bring Misaki-chan back!”

Suddenly, one of Hanako’s wisps appears out of nowhere and knocks the scissors out of Number 2’s hands. 

“Number 7…?!” Number 2 exclaims in surprise. “How did you find us?”

“Hakujoudai showed me the way,” she says, holding a hand out to the wisp. She then slumps to the ground, exhausted from the trip down.

“Hanako-chan!” Tsugumi rushed over to where she was sitting. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Hanako lied. “Although, I think trying to fight Number 2 in her own realm has proven to be a much harder task than I’d expected.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Have you found out anything about her Yorishiro? If we destroy that, then I should be able to take her down without any issue,” Hanako says. “Did you find any clues about what it might be? Something that means a lot to her, perhaps?”

_“Misaki-chan gave me some fabric scissors today. She said that I could use them to make as many dolls as I wanted. I’ll put them in the shrine to keep them safe. Thank you, Misaki-chan.”_

“I think I might have an idea,” Tsugumi says, remembering the fabric scissors mentioned in Number 2’s diary. “I just have to destroy it, right?”

“Yes, it should have a seal on it when you find it. I’ll try to keep her busy while you go and do that.”

“Sorry to interrupt, but…” Number 2 raises her scissor blades once again. “I really have to get going, now.”

Before she could slam the blades shut, Hanako quickly throws her ropes around Number 2, restraining her movements. She signals for Tsugumi to get moving, who nods and takes off towards the small shrine beyond the torii.

“Number 7…! Stop it!” Number 2 cries, her voice wavering. She reaches out in Tsugumi’s direction, and upon her command more dolls began to rise out of the ground, effectively blocking Tsugumi’s way to the shrine. “I need my Yorishiro or else I can’t make Misaki-chan! I don’t care what happens to me! Please, just let me bring her back!”

“Um!” Tsugumi stops in her tracks, looking back at Hanako and Number 2. “Seeing the way you’re acting kind of reminds me of the person I was a couple weeks ago… it’s kind of like deja vu, I guess.”

“H-huh? What are you-”

“You’re putting yourself through all of this pain or the slightest possibility that you might be able to bring your friend back!” Tsugumi yells at the spirit. “You should think about yourself for once! There's no point in thinking about the life your friend never had when you still have your own life left to live! Isn’t that what Misaki-chan would’ve wanted of you?”

Number 2 blinks at her, not sure how to respond.

And with that, Tsugumi uses the dolls as a stepping point in getting to the shrine. Stepping over their heads, she rushes to the small shrine and throws its doors open. As she expected, there was a pair of fabric scissors inside, covered by a black seal.

“No! Don’t!” Number 2 broke out of her restraints and ran towards Tsugumi, right as she grabbed the scissors from the shrine and peeled off the seal. Almost immediately, the world around them began to shatter into neat triangle shards. Hanako swoops down with her cape in between Tsugumi and Number 2, brandishing her knife.

“Mystery Number 2 of the Misaki Stairs, you’ve abandoned your duties as a school mystery,” Hanako says, driving her knife into Number 2’s chest. “You are now returned to your seat number.”

* * *

_It was a bright, sunny day._

_“Okay, as soon as I finish setting up the camera, we’re all going to line up for the picture!”_

_“Sensei, why are we taking the class picture here? Can’t we take it back at the school?”_

_“Come on, it’s a beautiful day outside! This scenery would look perfect for a class photo.”_

_A week ago, Misaki had suggested to her teacher that they take their class photo in front of the Inari shrine._

_'I don’t know, I just think it would look nice as a background?’ she had said, but that wasn’t all; she wanted to include Kanon in the picture, as well. As far as she was concerned, Kanon was just as much a part of her class as the rest of them were, ghost or not._

_“Misaki-chan, what’s everyone doing here?” Kanon had asked. Misaki had wandered ahead of the rest of her class to talk with her._

_“Ah, we’re taking our class picture here today,” Misaki said, rubbing the back of her neck. “I wanted it to be a surprise for you… you’re a part of this class too, after all.”_

_“Misaki-chan…”_

_“Alright, everyone! Let’s all line up for the photo!” the teacher called out. Obediently, all of Misaki’s classmates lined themselves up accordingly for the class picture._

_“Okay, make sure to look forward and smile!”_

_Misaki looked back at Kanon, who had since retreated back into the fox statue the moment the other kids got there. She smiled warmly at the statue._

_“You too,” Misaki whispered, taking Kanon's hand and pulling her out from the statue. The spirit blinked up at the girl, her bright eyes sparkling in the sunlight._

_The camera shutters snap._

* * *

“...zawa-san. Hazawa-san.”

Tsugumi awoke to the sound of Hanako calling her name. Her eyes adjusting to the darkness of the night, she notices that they were once again back at Haneoka, in the living world. They were gathered in front of the Misaki Stairs’ real-life location.

“Hanako-chan?” she says, rubbing her eyes. Then she stops. “Where’s Ako-chan? Is she okay?”

“She’ll be fine,” Hanako says, taking something out of her skirt pocket and handing it to Tsugumi. It was a small plush doll of Ako.

“Ahh! Ako-chan!” Tsugumi takes the doll in her hands. “She’ll change back though, right? Along with everyone else?”

“Of course. _She’ll_ make sure of it.”

Hanako holds up a small white fox by its scruff. It was wearing a small red bib and a lavender ribbon tied around its neck and was surrounded by wisps just like Hanako was. “This is the Misaki Stairs’ true identity: a spirit inhabiting an Inari statue.”

“Ohh…” Tsugumi turns her attention to the fox. “What’ll happen to all the kids who were turned into dolls?” she asks.

“They’ll all turn back by morning,” the fox says, looking down gloomily. “I don’t have much power left, anyway...”

Tsugumi furrows her brows. The fox was no doubt upset about what’d happened to her Yorishiro; it was given to her by a close friend of hers, after all. Tsugumi retrieves something from her blazer pocket, showing it to the fox. “Here,” she says. It was the class photo she found in the diary. “J-just so you know, I still haven’t forgiven you for what you’ve done! But I did also destroy something that meant a lot to you… so I’m sorry about that.”

The fox takes the photo in her paws, staring at it solemnly. Tsugumi pats its head, to which she leans into the touch. A moment later, she walks back towards the stairs carrying the photo in her mouth. She turns around to take one last look at Tsugumi and Hanako.

“I… my name is Kanon,” she says. “I don’t expect you to forgive me, but I do hope that we can work together someday…!” With that, she disappears into the darkness of the stairway.

As soon as the fox left the room, Tsugumi slumps against the wall. “Ahh… I’m exhausted… that whole trip was more tiring than I thought it’d be…”

“Hmm… I might have something that could help with that,” Hanako says, walking towards her. As Tsugumi turns around, Hanako gives her a kiss on her cheek. “It’s a magic spell to help you feel better,” she smiles as the former turns bright red.

“W-what?!” 

The dark paper crane, deciding it had seen enough for the day, floated out of Tsugumi’s pocket and across the campus grounds. It lands directly in front of the broadcast club and is immediately picked up by the one who planted it.

“Oh, hello there,” Moca greets the crane. “You sure took your time~”

Opening the door to the broadcast room, Moca strides in with the crane in hand. “Raaan, it’s baaack,” she called.

“Moca, don’t yell so loud! The teachers will find you!”

“Yeah, yeah, got it~."

Ran holds out her hand, which the crane gladly lands on. As it touches her hand, the crane bursts into dark flames and transforms into a black wisp. “Welcome back, Kokujoudai.”

“...I see. So it went well.”

“Good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [here are kanon and ako's designs for this au!](https://imgur.com/a/9UN3vfg) thank you all for reading ^^


	7. Chapter 7

It’s been about a month since she first met Hanako. Since then, Tsugumi doesn’t think she’s had a single moment to herself; every waking moment of her day ever since that fateful day has been filled with mishaps and run-ins with whatever Supernatural of the Day was, not to mention the fact that she could no longer sustain any prolonged contact with water anymore lest she turns into a goldfish. Amidst her classwork and student council meetings, Tsugumi wonders if truly anything good has come out of this situation

 _‘I guess I can’t be too pessimistic about this,’_ Tsugumi thinks to herself, shoveling soil into a pot. Their homeroom was having their weekly gardening practice and everyone was outside in the sun getting their hands in the dirt. _‘I mean, I did get to stop the Mokke from stealing everyone’s stuff, and I did get to rescue Eve-chan from the Misaki Stairs.’_

Tsugumi looks over at Eve, who was tending to the plants in the next patch over. Just like Kanon had promised, everyone that had been stuck in her boundary all returned to their normal human selves by morning. Speaking of the boundary incident… 

Tsugumi thinks back to the encounter she had with Hanako near the stairwell. _‘And… there was also…_ that _…’_

She’d been feeling super exhausted after their excursion into Kanon’s boundary and then Hanako, out of the blue, had given her a small kiss on her cheek. Granted, it probably didn’t count as a ‘proper kiss’ since it wasn’t on the lips, but it was still the first time Tsugumi had been kissed by someone outside of her immediate family. 

As expected, she wasn’t sure how to feel about the whole ordeal. Any time she even began to think about the incident her face would get warm and her head would go blank. But on the other hand, avoiding it probably wouldn’t be the best idea either; she’s gotta address it at some point.

 _‘Don’t tell me… does Hanako-chan like me?’_ Tsugumi closes her eyes, deep in thought. _‘Could that be why she’s always so quick to save me from danger...?’_

Eve walks up and taps her on the shoulder. “Tsugumi-san, you’re making weird faces again!” she smiles.

“Eve-chan!” Tsugumi jumps at her touch. “Sorry, I was just lost in thought, haha…”

“Oh? What were you thinking about?”

“Eve-chan…” Tsugumi stopped. Would Eve know anything about dealing with Teen Romance? “How do you tell if someone has a crush on you?”

Eve stares at her for a moment. “Hmm… I guess it depends! Why do you ask?”

“Uh… I think someone I know might like me, but I don’t know for sure.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Um.” Tsugumi could feel her face heat up. “Well, um… they kinda kissed me the other day and-”

Eve gasps. “Tsugumi-san! That definitely means they like you!”

“Y-you think so?”

“If they kissed you out of nowhere, that must the only explanation!” Eve nudges her. “So what are they like?”

“Well…” Tsugumi stops. She couldn’t tell Eve that Hanako was a ghost. “She’s… got really long hair, and has these really calm eyes. She can be really scary sometimes though… Oh! And she’s surprisingly good in a fight…?”

Eve blinks at her, then erupts into her usual cheerful smile. “Oh, Tsugumi-san! I didn’t know you were into delinquents!”

“A-ah, that’s not-”

“Anyway, at this rate she’s bound to confess to you any day now! It’s the big thing nowadays!”

“Huh?” Tsugumi tilts her head, confused. “What do you mean?”

“The confession tree!” Eve points at small a clearing just beyond the school garden, where a large willow tree was peacefully sitting. “Rumors say that the God of Romance himself planted it here and that any couple who confesses under it will be bound together in love forever!”

Tsugumi stared back at the tree, puzzled. ‘ _Huh, that’s weird,’_ she thought to herself. _‘Had that tree always been there?’_

“Look, Tsugumi-san! Someone’s there right now!”

Sure enough, there were two figures gathered underneath the willow tree. A soft breeze blew through its branches, making them sway in the wind.

“...have admired you from afar since the day I laid eyes on you.” The taller girl extends out her hand. “Please, won’t you allow me to stay by your side for the rest of eternity?”

“Ahaha, y-yes! Of course, you may! I’d be happy to!” The shorter girl takes a deep sigh, setting aside the paper she was holding. “Was that okay, Kaoru-san?”

“You did a wonderful job, Maya. Thank you for agreeing to help me rehearse.”

“Ah, it’s no problem!”

“I just thought it’d be more fitting to rehearse this scene on location, wouldn’t you agree?”

Eve watched the pair in awe. “Ooh, they must be rehearsing for the upcoming school play!” She then turned back to Tsugumi, gesturing to the rest of their class. “That aside, haven’t you noticed all the new couples in our class recently? Almost all of them are couples who confessed under that tree!”

“Now that you mention it…” 

Eve was right; there were in fact an awful lot of new couples lately, not just within their class. Initially, she hadn’t thought much of it. But now that she actually stopped to observe the situation, it did seem a bit odd. Almost everyone she knew had been coupled up, classmates and fellow student council members alike. Was the tree really that successful?

“Who knows? Maybe this certain someone might be confessing to you under that tree before you know it!”

“Haha, I don’t know about that. She probably wouldn’t...”

...Would she?

* * *

Later that day, Tsugumi went to the girls’ bathroom like she usually did. Hanako was waiting for her near the door, her arms crossed.

“...Hazawa-san. Will you meet me under the willow tree in the school garden tomorrow afternoon?”

Tsugumi stared at her in shock. “H-huh...?! Y-you mean the confession tree?!”

“Oh, so you already know about it.” Hanako brushes past her, exiting the bathroom. “I’ll meet you there, then.”

Tsugumi felt like her heart was about to burst out of her chest. No way. _No way._

Before she even knew it, the day was over. 

* * *

The next morning, Tsugumi rushed into the school, eager to tell Eve about what had happened. 

“Eve-chan!” Upon seeing her, Tsugumi tapped her friend on the shoulder. Eve turns around, her face sullen with anguish. She wasn’t quite on the verge of tears yet, but she was edging dangerously close to it. 

Tsugumi frowned. “H-huh? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Eve says nothing, and simply points at a small group of students gathered in the hallway. It seemed like there was a slight commotion near the entrance of one of the classrooms. Upon getting closer, Tsugumi could see two students huddled together, one of them draped over the other’s arms. It was… Kaoru and Maya?

It looked like a scene straight out of a cliché romance novel. If they were in a romance movie right now, there’d be roses blooming in the background of the scene and heavenly light shining down from the heavens and onto their faces.

“Wh… what are you two doing?” Tsugumi asked them. It’s not like she was against the relationship itself; it just seemed strange to her that Maya, who had never once shown any interest in Kaoru’s flirtatious charms, was now suddenly being willingly cradled in the latter’s arms and gazing intently into each other’s eyes as if they were the last ones on earth.

“Well… ever since I helped Kaoru-san with her lines yesterday, I couldn’t seem to get her out of my head…” Maya says, adjusting her glasses. 

Kaoru laughs softly, brushing a strand of hair out of Maya’s eyes. “It was the same for me as well, so...”

Kaoru twirls Maya around, and the two struck a dramatic pose. “We decided to become a couple!”

If they weren’t both members of the drama club, this would’ve further raised Tsugumi’s suspicion that something was amiss. She turned back towards Eve, who was still staring at the pair in shock. “Maya-san… she…”

“Eve-chan, did you like her?”

Eve shakes her head, trying to put on her usual smile. “N-no! We’re just friends, so of course I’m happy for her, but…”

Her mouth said one thing but her expression said another. She was clearly upset, even if she was trying her hardest not to show it; the girl had never been one to hide her true emotions, willingly or not. 

_‘Some confession tree this must be…’_ Tsugumi thought later that afternoon, on her way to the tree. _‘I hope Eve-chan will be okay…’_

To be honest, she’d always thought herself to be too ‘plain’ and ‘dull’ for even the slightest possibility that someone would like her; of course, her friends had always denied this and told her otherwise, but she’d doubt their words nonetheless. But now… she was actually about to be confessed to.

What would it be like to have a ghost girlfriend, anyway? In theory, the idea sounded rather fantastical; it’d almost be as if she were the relentlessly determined heroine of a shoujo manga. But on the other hand… what were the implications of being a protagonist? More importantly, was she sure that she even fully liked Hanako back?

Tsugumi sighs. High school relationships are so complicated. Maybe she should’ve taken up Hanako’s offer on the friendship help book after all. 

As she walked through the school garden, Tsugumi could make out the outline of the willow tree, its long branches swaying peacefully in the wind. She could see Hanako standing in its shade, staring wistfully into the distance. Petals from the tree drifted gently through the air.

_‘Well… she can be really cool sometimes...‘_

Hearing Tsugumi’s footsteps approach her, Hanako turns around.

“Well then, I’ll just get right to it.” Not giving the other girl a chance to react, Hanako quickly takes Tsugumi’s hands in her own. She stares deeply into Tsugumi’s eyes, causing her to stagger backward.

“Hazawa-san, I love you!” Hanako declares loudly and rather uncharacteristically. “Please go out with me!”

This was it. It was really happening. For the first time in her life, Tsugumi Hazawa had just been confessed to. Sure, it may have not been what she had imagined for her first confession (or even her first partner for that matter), but it filled her with an immense joy that she couldn’t even begin to describe the extent of. 

Being confessed to… felt great. Tsugumi was sure she even began crying.

“...Hazawa-san?” 

Tsugumi looked up at Hanako, who was staring at her with confusion. “What are you doing? Hurry up and turn me down,” she whispered.

“Huh? But-”

“Just say ‘I’m sorry’.” Hanako suddenly gains a determined look in her eyes. “Hurry!”

“I-I’m sorry…?!”

 **“Oh my… we can’t have that,”** a voice said. It seemed to have come from _within_ the tree. **“If someone confesses their love to you, it’s only logical to accept. Wouldn’t you agree?”**

All of a sudden, the willow tree began to creak loudly. Its trunk started to bend, forcing the tree to loom over the pair threateningly. Hanako instinctively draws her knife and holds out an arm in front of Tsugumi, shielding her from the leaves and branches that fell with the tree’s awkward movements.

**“It is love that leads people to happiness. And you would so dare to refuse it? Preposterous.”**

Daring to open her eyes, Tsugumi looks in the direction of the voice. What she saw was the face of an old man carved into the tree’s trunk. It seemed to be… alive? 

“Ahh! W-what on earth is that?!”

 **“How rude!”** the tree boomed, and stretched out its thin branches towards Tsugumi’s throat. As they approached her face, however, a bright light emanated from her body and shielded her from the sudden attack, deflecting the branches.

 **“What?!”** The tree reeled back in shock. **“That’s a very powerful protection spell! How did you-?”**

“Kodama.” Hanako swoops down in front of Tsugumi, pointing her knife at the tree. “It’s a good thing that I had an assisstant, wouldn’t you say? Since you would only ever appear in front of couples.”

Tsugumi blinked. Huh?

**“Number 7… I have done nothing worthy of punishment! What I am doing is merely for the happiness of the students-”**

“And that…” In a flash, Hanako slashes her knife down the middle of the tree’s trunk. “I cannot allow. Meddling with the lives of humans is _strictly_ forbidden.”

The tree’s trunk splits in half upon impact, and explodes into a large explosion of dust. After all the dust had settled, the once humongous tree had shrunk down to the size of a broccoli cluster. 

“How dare you, Number 7!” the tree cried. Its voice was a lot higher now than it was before. “Do you know how long it took me to save up all that power from the students’ rumors?!”

“There’s nothing wrong with helping people find love. However, you just happened to have taken it a step too far,” Hanako says matter-of-factly.

“Hanako-chan… what is this?” Tsugumi asked.

“A Kodama. Or rather, a supernatural tree.” Hanako puts away her knife, and dusts off her skirt. “If someone were to confess their love under it, it would forcibly engrave blossoms of love into both parties and make them a couple. You did notice all the strange pairings that mysteriously showed up around your school, hadn’t you?”

“Oh…” Tsugumi nodded. That would explain why Maya had become suddenly attracted to Kaoru out of the blue.

“...Is that not what you were helping me with?”

“N-no, yeah! You’re right! I noticed all the weird couples too!” 

So it wasn’t an actual confession after all. 

_‘Ah… I got ahead of myself and got the wrong idea. How careless of me…’_

“Do you have any ideas for the new rumor yet?” Hanako asked, jotting something down in her notebook. “We’ll need to come up with one for the Misaki Stairs as well.”

Tsugumi didn’t answer. Taking note of her silence, Hanako turns to her assistant. “Hazawa-san?”

When she didn’t answer a second time, Hanako puts away the notebook and walks up to her. “...Were you disappointed that it wasn’t a real confession? Hazawa-san… you do realize that-”

Hanako stopped talking upon seeing tears roll down the other girl’s cheek. She took a step back in genuine surprise.

“I-I just feel so embarrassed…” Tsugumi sobbed. “W-why did you kiss my cheek the other day, then…?”

Hanako’s cheeks flushed, and she grew flustered. “B-because you seemed really tired, so I placed a protection spell on you to make sure no supernaturals would bother you for a while…?”

“I-I feel so stupid…” Tsugumi sniffed and made her way to the school’s back gates. “...I’m gonna go home now.”

“H-Hazawa-san, wait!” Right as she put her hand on the gate, Hanako grabs her hand. The ghost takes off her hat and holds it to her chest.

“I… I’m sorry. I should’ve thought it through more. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

Hanako wore such a genuine expression that Tsugumi stopped crying upon seeing it. After seeing her without her hat, for the first time since meeting her, Hanako really seemed like a normal girl. 

That’s when Tsugumi realized… she didn’t know anything about her. She’d been going around this whole time parading as her ‘friend’ when she didn’t even know the slightest bit of information about her; she hadn’t even once tried to find out. 

The crime she’d committed, her previous life, her real name… 

“...You can stay here until you’re done crying,” Hanako says, hugging Tsugumi close to her shoulder. The latter nods, burying her face in the other’s uniform.

And for the first time… Tsugumi felt like she _wanted_ to find out more about her.

* * *

“...Why do you need to know so much about me, again?”

“I-I’m helping to conduct a survey for the student council! Of all the students!”

“But… I’m dead, Hazawa-san.”

“What are you guys talking about? What survey?” Ako piped up.

The three girls were sitting in the school courtyard, attempting to all be seated on the same bench. Ako had asked the other two to sit with her while she waited for Tomoe to come; the sisters always liked to walk home together. 

Hanako sighs. “If you really want to conduct a survey, why don’t you do it on Udagawa-san?”

“Ah, Tsugu! Didn’t expect to see you here!” 

The three of them turn towards the voice. Ako shoots up and immediately runs towards the figure, locking her into a tight hug. 

“Hey Tomoe-chan,” Tsugumi greets her friend as she approaches, waving.

Tomoe waves back, and gently taps Ako on the head with her clipboard. “Thanks for helping me looking after Ako, Tsugu. I’ve just been kinda busy lately…”

“Oh, it’s no problem!”

“...And you…” Tomoe looks in Hanako’s direction, glaring coldly at her. Hanako grimaces slightly in response. 

“Ako, come here for a sec,” Tomoe says, beckoning Ako back into the school building. “I need to tell you something.”

“Okay!”

As Ako scampers off, Tsugumi stares off after the two sisters. Being an only child, she’d always been a bit envious of their relationship. If only she had a little sister…

But just now, she’d glared at Hanako as if she could actually see her. And there was also that moment back in the Misaki Stairs dimension where Ako had revealed that Tomoe was the one to teach her about boundaries. Could that mean…?

“Ah-! If Ako is an exorcist, that means Tomoe must be one as well!” Tsugumi realizes. 

Hanako blinks, as if she were surprised Tsugumi had only just figured it all out. “...Um, well, yes...?”

* * *

Back inside the school, near the main stairwell…

“...thought we talked about this, Ako. If you come across any of the Seven Mysteries, you have to exterminate them immediately.”

Ako looks down at the floor. Tomoe didn’t scold her very often and didn’t like to do it either. Both of them felt uneasy anytime they had a confrontation like this, so usually, they never lasted for longer than a few minutes.

“Yeah…”

Tomoe sighs. “The only reason we’ve tolerated them for so long is because they’ve never caused harm to anyone. But we can’t really say that’s the case anymore. We have to get rid of them while we still have the chance.”

“But…” Ako averts her eyes, staring at a suddenly very fascinating potted plant. “I just can’t see Hanako-san as a bad supernatural…”

Tomoe raises her eyebrows. “What makes you say that?”

“Well, I mean, she can be kinda scary sometimes,” the younger girl recalls. “But she’s helped me plenty of times! And everyone else, too!”

“Ako,” Tomoe says, a little sternly. That caught Ako’s attention. “Supernaturals will always be a danger to the living. ‘Good supernaturals’ aren’t a thing.”

Ako gulps, shifting her feet. “B-but…”

“I thought I’d let you take care of them because it’d help you grow as an exorcist, but…” Tomoe sighs, and pats her little sister on her shoulder. “I just don’t think you’re ready yet. I’m taking you off the Seven Mysteries case.”

“W-what?”

Tomoe begins heading out the door, looking back at Ako. “Just leave it to me, alright? You don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

“N-no… wait!” Ako grabs her sister’s sleeves, looking up at her with a pleading expression. “Please don’t take me off, I wanna help!” 

Tomoe blinks, but eventually gives in. She pats Ako on the head. “Alright, fine,” she says, giving her a reassuring smile. “I’ll give you some more time. But you know what you have to do.”

“Y-yeah! Of course!”

But Ako wasn’t so sure anymore.

* * *

The following day, Ako decided to skip class to do some investigation work on Hanako. The bell rings, signaling the start of their 2nd period.

 _‘I know I said that I’d exorcise Hanako-san for Nee-chan, but… I’m just not feeling it anymore…”_ Ako thinks to herself as she crawls around in the bushes outside her homeroom, hiding from any teachers that may be walking around. _‘And I think Tsugu-chin would be really sad if I exorcised Hanako-san, so…’_

Ako tightens her fist determinedly. _‘I’ll just have to find a way to convince her otherwise!! Even if it means cutting class!’_

Ako smiled to herself, pleased at the excuse she’d given to her teacher earlier that day. There’s just no way anyone would turn down someone suffering from heterochromia, after all! It’s absolutely foolproof!

 _‘I’m gonna stick to Hanako-san all day and prove to Nee-chan that she’s not a bad supernatural!’_ Ako thought as she continued to crawl on the ground and through the bushes. Leaves and twigs had gotten stuck in her now unruly hair, but she didn’t care; she was on a mission.

Suddenly, she notices movement near the school fountain. Peeking out from the bushes, she spotted Hanako lurking around with a large bag, surrounded by a couple Mokke. The school legend seemed to be looking for something, and was rummaging around in various places around the fountain. She looked… really suspicious.

 _‘I have to get a closer look!’_ As Ako got ready to move closer, the window directly above her suddenly opens. She freezes.

“Is someone there?” It was a teacher. After confirming that there was no one out there, he closes the window. “Hmm… it was probably just a cat or something.”

 _‘Ah… that was close…’_ Ako sighed in relief. _‘I really have to be more careful!’_

“Udagawa-san, what are you doing?”

“Ahh!”

Unbeknownst by Ako, Hanako had walked over to her hiding place and was peering down at her with a slightly puzzled expression.

“Are you trying to spy on me?” she asks the younger girl. “You’re even skipping class.” Hanako frowned, as if horrified at the very thought of missing class.

“I-it’s not for you! I’m doing it to reveal your evil deeds!” Ako declares loudly, forgetting about having to stay hidden lest a teacher found her. She grabs the bag from Hanako’s feet. “Let me see what’s in here-!”

Expecting to find a hoard of evil magical items, Ako instead finds a small collection of ordinary belongings. A textbook, someone’s lunchbox, a bus pass…

Ako narrows her eyes suspiciously at Hanako. Were these stolen goods?

“In case you were wondering, no. I didn’t steal these.” Two Mokke peeks out from behind Hanako’s feet, which she scoops up into her hands, showing them to Ako. “The Mokke took them. Even though I had Hazawa-san change their rumors, I just can’t get them to shake their thieving habits.”

Ako takes the Mokke, who peer up at her with bright eyes. “Oh.”

“Every once in a while, I collect everything that seems valuable and take them back to their respective owners.” Hanako begins to regather all of the stolen items. “They like to hide them in rather bothersome places, so I’ve been looking everywhere.”

“But stealing’s fun…” “We can’t help it!” “Sorry…” the Mokke chorused. 

_‘So... she wasn’t doing anything bad!’_ Ako thought as she gently patted the Mokke sitting in her hands. That was a relief; now she just had to tell Tomoe about what she’d discovered.

“Udagawa-san, while you’re here,” Hanako says. “Would you mind helping me with something?”

“Sure!”

Hanako points to the top of the school’s stargazing tower, where the astrology club met. “It looks like the Mokke hid something up there, but none of us can seem to reach it.”

“It had hard work getting it up there… but now we can’t get it back down!” the Mokke cried in agreement. 

“Hmm… okay!” Ako stares up at the tower. “But… what can I do? I can’t reach up there any better than you can!”

“...I might have an idea.”

* * *

“I don’t think this is a great idea, Hanako-san!!”

The two were now at the top floor of the tower, with Hanako standing precariously on the tower’s ridiculously narrow ledges and Ako holding onto her hands through the window as she reached out for the hidden object. At this point, even a small breeze would be enough to knock Hanako off the tower and send her plummeting to the ground.

“It’s fine, I can manage.”

“Can’t you just float??”

“Not this high up. A little to the left, please.” Hanako shifts closer to the object. “Sorry for putting you through this trouble, but the item just seemed important to someone.”

Ako held on tighter to Hanako’s hand. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t picture Hanako as a bad supernatural. Even now, she’s still going around trying to help people; no evil spirit would ever think of doing something like that. 

_“‘Good supernaturals’ aren’t a thing, Ako.”_

But was that really true? Maybe there were good supernaturals, and Tomoe just didn’t know about them. There _had_ to be at least _some_ good ones… right?

Just as they’d both feared, a breeze blew across the tower, causing Ako to slightly loosen her grip on Hanako’s hand. That was all it took for her to lose her balance. 

“Ah-!” Ako panicked, stretching her hand out. “Hanako-san! Grab on!”

But it was too late; she’d already fallen too far. Right before she fell off, however, Hanako managed to quickly grab the object from the tower’s ledge and plunged into the earth below. Ako heard her hit the ground with a loud smack.

“Hanako-san!”

Ako ran down the spiral staircase as fast as she could, rushing to Hanako’s side. She was laying completely still on the ground, her eyes closed. Her right fist was clenched, tightly holding onto something.

“Hanako-san! Hanako-san, wake up!” Ako yelled, shaking the ghost. 

Immediately, Hanako shot back up, her eyes wide. She dusted her hands off on her uniform and sighed a huge sigh of relief.

“That was… awful. I thought I was about to die.”

“But… aren’t you already dead?”

“...Oh. Yeah.” 

Ako snickers, lightening the previously tense mood. 

“Oh, right. Here,” Hanako says, handing Ako the object. It was her earring. 

“Ah! Where did you get that?” Ako takes the earring, quickly clipping it back on. She shoots an accusatory look at a nearby Mokke. “Was it you?!”

“Must’ve been. They were awfully proud of it, too.” Hanako gives her a small grin. “You should take better care of your belongings, Udagawa-san.”

 _‘So… this was the thing that looked so important to her…?’_ Ako ponders for a moment. She then looks up at Hanako, smiling widely at her.

“There is such a thing!” she announced. “There is such a thing as a good supernatural!”

“...Huh?”

“I’ve made up my mind, Hanako-san! I’m not going to exorcise you anymore!”

Hanako raises an eyebrow. “Why not? Wasn’t it you that said I was the spirit of an evil murderer?”

“Yeah, but… I didn’t know better back then, sorry,” Ako admits. “Anyway, I’m sure you had your reasons for doing what you did, right? You’re a really sensible person, so I’m sure they were good reasons!”

“...Reasons, huh.”

Ako nods. “Yeah! So, from now on, I’m gonna help y-”

“Udagawa-san.”

Ako stops. Hanako had a complete 180-degree change in demeanor just now. Something wasn’t right.

Hanako’s face turned cold. “Just exactly what sort of reason would justify taking the life of another human being?” 

The spirit shoves Ako to the ground. 

“Hey! What are you-”

Before she could say anything else, Hanako holds her knife to Ako’s throat. She wore an unreadable expression on her face; one that was full of anguish and despair. This wasn’t right.

“Let’s say… if I were to kill you right now. And I had a very good reason for doing it.” Hanako raises her knife, poising to drive it into the younger girl’s chest. Her eyes were completely blank as if she weren’t actually there but rather trapped in her own thoughts instead. “Would that make it right?”

“H...Hanako-san?” Ako looked up at her, worried. “What are you-?”

“That’s enough!”

A jolt of lightning shot through Hanako, electrocuting her. The pain was enough to force her to release her grip on Ako and slump to the ground.

“Hanako-san!” Ako called, jumping back from the electricity buzzing in the air.

“I thought it was weird of you to skip class, Ako. So I’ve been going around trying to find you.” Tomoe was walking towards them, an unsheathed sword in her right hand. Small streams of lightning swirled around her as she walked. She looked back down at Hanako, who had passed out from the force.

“Looks like I was right to be worried.”


	8. Chapter 8

Tomoe had been a skilled exorcist from the very beginning. Even when she was younger, she was able to destroy powerful spirits with a single blow. Truly, she was considered the exorcist prodigy of the Udagawa family.

Ako would always sneak out to watch her fights. She’d always looked so cool, the way the black lightning shot out from her sword and struck the monsters, disintegrating them in one shot. She always knew her sister would win every single battle; there was never any doubt about that.

 _“I’m gonna be just like you someday!”_ a five-year-old Ako had once declared to her, after another successful exorcism. _“I’ll get super strong and then I’ll beat up all the supernaturals!”_

 _“I’ll be looking forward to it!”_ Tomoe had responded, smiling brightly.

Every time Tomoe took down a spirit, she’d always turn back to Ako with a kind reassuring smile. This led her to always believe that that smile was the expression she wore into battle; one that was full of empathy, love, and compassion.

But now… looking at her standing before Hanako, Ako quickly realized that wasn’t the case. 

Tomoe’s face was hard and cold, glaring down at the spirit with intense disgust; nothing like the kind smile Ako had grown so accustomed to.

_‘Nee-chan… is this really the face you were making in all of those fights...?’_

“Ako, get back! That’s a really dangerous supernatural, so I have to exorcise it right now!” Tomoe called, gesturing for Ako to move out of the way with her sword.

“Ah-” Ako gripped her staff tightly. “N-no! I won’t!”

“Oh… I’m sorry to hear that.” Tomoe tugs on her bracelet, which unravels and securely ties itself around Ako, restraining her every movement and gently casting her some ways away from the conflict. These were beads used specifically for binding supernaturals.

“I’m sorry Ako, but I can’t let you get in the middle of this,” Tomoe says, shooting her an apologetic smile. “I just don’t think you’re ready for this yet. You’ll understand when you’re older.”

She then turns back to Hanako, who had since woken up. “Haven’t seen you since yesterday, school legend,” she says coldly. “How are you holding up?”

Hanako grabs her shoulder, stumbling as she unsteadily rose to her feet. As she attempted to summon her wisps, bolts of black lightning shoot out from Tomoe’s sword, forming a barrier around them.

“Sorry, can’t let you summon your Tsueshiro,” Tomoe says. “I don’t want to make this fight harder than it should be.”

Normally, if this were any other fight, Ako would’ve found the lightning cage to be super cool. But now that it was a friend of hers inside that barrier instead of some other evil spirit, she began to panic. At this rate, Hanako wouldn’t be able to escape and would end up being disintegrated. 

_‘That sword is an artifact that’s only used for offensive attacks…’_ Ako observed. _‘So how is it so good at controlling lightning like this?’_

Hanako tightly grasps her knife, glowering at Tomoe. The latter raises an eyebrow. “Wow, that’s pretty scary,” she says. “No matter how hard you try, you can never hide who you really are.”

“You’re an unstable ghost that becomes violent at the slightest provocation. You took the life of another human being and stubbornly refuse to pay the price for it,” Tomoe continues. She draws her sword back, lightning starting to charge within its blade. 

“Honestly, it’s kinda pathetic.”

Ako knew full well how this fight was going to go; she’d seen it a hundred times before. First, she knocks her opponent off-balance to give herself an opening, then she stabs them with her sword. The lightning released from the sword then destroys their soul from the inside. It’s the perfect strategy.

But…

 _‘I don’t care how powerful of a spirit Hanako-san is,’_ Ako thought, trying to free herself from the restraints. _‘If she gets zapped enough times, she’ll die! I have to stop them before they-’_

Wait. _Did_ she really have to stop them? Hanako definitely wasn’t acting herself just now, and Tomoe did say it would be best if they exorcised her to prevent her from possibly causing harm to other students in the future. Maybe Tomoe was right; supernaturals are just too violent and unpredictable to not do something about it. Maybe… Ako had been wrong about Hanako.

It’s not like Ako had ever exorcised anything before, anyway. She was a lot weaker and had a lot less experience than her sister. Tomoe was the prodigy, after all. The glorious hero fighting for what was right. If anyone would know about the best way to deal with unruly spirits, it’d be her. Maybe things were just better this way-

Ako’s train of thought was disrupted by another deafening crack of lightning. Hanako had been knocked back down to the ground, her weapon some ways away from her reach.

“Why do you keep fighting it?” Tomoe asks the ghost. “You’ve been in the near shore for… how many years now? Isn’t it time you faced your punishment already?”

“‘Punishment’...” Hanako muttered. “You living people are all the same.”

“What?”

“You all think that dying is the best way to atone, as if the life of a murderer could ever atone for anything!” she cries, backing up against the wall of the school. “Destroying me wouldn’t achieve anything! I still have things I need to do here!”

Ako stared at her with wide eyes. Hanako still had things she needed to accomplish? She’s supposedly an ‘evil spirit’, but she relentlessly helps people. She protects the students from harm. Was this her way of atoning for her crime? If that was the case, then…

 _‘I can’t allow Nee-chan to destroy Hanako-san!’_ Ako decided, tugging at the beads. 

“...You have your own issues to work through?” Tomoe raises her sword, preparing to stab it into Hanako’s chest. “None of that matters anymore. You’re an evil spirit, so I’m going to exorcise you. It’s over.”

“Stop it!!”

Before Tomoe had a chance to swing her sword, Ako quickly slid in between the two. She holds her arms out to shield Hanako from the impending attack, the same way Tsugumi had done to her. Her sister manages to hold back her strike just in time, only grazing the tip of Ako’s blazer. She could feel the electricity crackling within the sword; if she were even a second later, _she_ would’ve been the one to be obliterated instead of Hanako.

“A-Ako! What are you doing?!” Tomoe stumbles backward. “You could’ve gotten hurt-!”

Instead of responding, Ako forcefully grabs the sword from Tomoe’s hands and tosses it to the side, shoving her away from Hanako.

“Ako, you-”

“I know I’m weaker than you!” Ako yells at her sister. “I know I’m not as strong as you, but… that doesn’t mean I don’t understand anything!”

Tomoe says nothing, just stares at her younger sister in stunned silence.

“I… you’re right, I should’ve tried to find out more about her before deciding whether she was good or not…” Ako sniffs, tears starting to form. “But exorcising every single supernatural just because you think ‘all supernaturals are evil’... I don’t think that’s right…!”

The younger sister rubs at her eyes, her cheeks wet from her tears. “I’m gonna get stronger just like you one day, Nee-chan… and then I’ll decide for myself what to do! Even if it means exorcising Hanako-san!”

“Ako…”

“S-so! Keep your hands off of her!” Ako declares, defiantly holding her stance between Tomoe and Hanako.

“...But what if she hurts someone tomorrow?”

“I’ll keep an eye on her! I’ll take responsibility!”

Tomoe thought to herself for a moment. It probably wouldn’t hurt to let Hanako go for now as long as she had someone keeping an eye on the situation. Problem was, that ‘someone’ was her little sister.

“...Alright, she can stay,” Tomoe says, finally.

“Ah! Really?!”

“Yeah,” Tomoe says, putting her sword back into its sheath. “I mean… I still don’t feel right about putting you in a position like this, but I trust you.”

“Yay! Thank you!”

Tomoe smiles and pats her little sister on the head before walking back into the school. “But I’m only doing this once, you hear? Next time this happens, she won’t be so lucky.”

Ako watched her sister’s back as she walked off into the distance. Even at a time like this, she still looked pretty dang cool. She turns back to Hanako, who had been staring at her the entire time in wide-eyed bewilderment.

“Well, you heard her! I’ll be keeping a closer watch on you from now on!” Ako vigorously points at Hanako. “If I catch you doing even the smallest evil activity, I’ll smite you!”

“...Is that so?” Hanako stands up and dusts off her now-dirty uniform. “Well, you’d better not disappoint me.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t!”

* * *

Meanwhile, Tsugumi had been back at the school library trying to find out whatever information she could on Hanako. 

Tsugumi sighed as she closed another book; no dice. It was well after school had ended, and she’d already gone through dozens of books. But all of them just seemed to repeat the same rumor about a child with bobbed hair and a red skirt haunting the girls’ bathroom; there was absolutely nothing about a high-school-aged girl. 

All of the other school mysteries thus far seemed to match up with their rumors, so why was Hanako the only exception…?

As she stood up to put away the books she’d taken out, her foot bumps into the table and the entire stack of books and papers fall to the ground. 

“Ah… just my luck…” 

Hurriedly kneeling to pick up the scattered books and papers, someone walks over and starts helping her clean up the mess.

“Oh! Thank you...” Tsugumi says, taking a book from the other girl’s hands. Upon seeing who it was, she trails off. “Ah, Ran-chan! It’s you!”

"Tsugumi," Ran greets her. She flips open one of the myth books Tsugumi had been reading. "...So you're interested in the Seven Mysteries?"

“Well, something like that...”

Ran’s eyes drifted down to one of the books that Tsugumi held in her hands, which told the legend of the alleged ‘Hanako-san of the Girls’ Toilet’.

“Oh, Hanako-san?” Ran said, picking up the remainder of the fallen books. “The one with blue hair?”

“...What?”

“Stubborn, blunt, fussy…” Ran stares distantly at the bookshelves. “Is yours like that too?”

What on earth was she talking about? Stubborn, blunt, fussy… sure, Hanako could be like that sometimes, but that’s not all she was! How does Ran know about Hanako, anyway? Could it be possible that she can see ghosts as well…?

“If you wanna know more about her, you should go see School Mystery Number 5,” Ran says, before swiftly exiting the library. On her way out, she bumped into a girl with long silver hair, who stiffly frowned at her before returning to her previous activity of tidying the bookshelves. 

By the time Tsugumi ran out of the library to catch up with Ran, she had already disappeared. 

...Just exactly how many secrets had her friends been hiding from her all these years? And how much else was there that she had no idea of?

* * *

The next day, Tsugumi decided to consult Eve about Mystery Number 5. Now that the effects of the matchmaking tree had worn off and all the strange pairings having consequently split up, Maya and Kaoru included, she seemed like she was back to her usual self. 

“...Mystery Number 5?” Eve said as she dusted off the classroom’s blackboard. “Oh, I think I’ve heard that one!”

“Really? Can you tell me about it?”

“Hehe, you sure like these rumors, don’t you, Tsugumi-san?” Eve smiled. “Okay! I’ll tell you what I know!”

_“The 4 PM Bookstacks._

_They say that in this school’s library, there’s a mysterious storeroom that only opens up at 4 PM. Its bookshelves are filled to the brim with books of students and staff members, and each contains a record of that person’s life at this school. What they did here, what they’re going to do here… past, present, and future, it’s all written in these books.”_

“Whoa… _everything’s_ recorded in them?” Tsugumi asked in wonder. 

“Exciting, right? It makes me curious about what might be written in mine!”

 _‘Then… I guess Ran was telling me to go and find Hanako-chan’s book?’_ Tsugumi thought to herself. _‘That would make sense, but I still have so many questions…!’_

“But if you do go, you have to be careful!” Eve continued. She holds up three fingers. “There are three kinds of books there: white, black, and red. The white ones are records of people who are still alive, and the black ones are of people who have died.”

“Ah…”

“White and black ones are okay, but…” Eve shuddered. “You must _never_ read the red books, Tsugumi-san!”

“W-what’s in the red books?” 

“No one knows, but apparently there’ll be fatal consequences if you do!” Eve grimaced. She did not like recounting the scarier rumors.

 _‘If Hanako-chan’s book is really in there… I’d want to read it,’_ Tsugumi thought, as she walked down the hall later that day to Hanako’s bathroom. _‘I wouldn’t want to go in there alone either, but if I talked about this with Hanako-chan, she might be against it-’_

“But Yukina-san-”

“No ‘buts’, Ako. The bathroom is not a hangout spot.”

As she approached the bathroom, Tsugumi heard a commotion coming from its entrance. It was Ako and the silver-haired girl from the library.

“Is something the matter?” Tsugumi asked the two, lightly jogging towards them.

“Oh, Tsugu-chin!” Ako cried. “I-”

“Hello, Hazawa-san,” Yukina greeted her before Ako could get a word in. She was the assistant librarian for the school’s library but also a member of the disciplinary council, so they’d interacted a couple of times. She also happened to have tutored Ako in the past, as well. “I was just telling Ako how the bathroom wasn’t a place for her to hang out in. I’ve already started hearing complaints of noise coming from this bathroom.”

“Ah, I see…” As the vice-president of the student council, surely Tsugumi should say something to discourage this behavior. But on the other hand… she couldn’t really tell Ako to stop coming to see Hanako either. “Hmm, well… if there are noise complaints, then maybe you should start coming here less…?”

“Tsugu-chin, not you too!” Ako whined. “Hanako-san’s not even here anyway… and I gotta keep my promise to Nee-chan!”

“Hanako-chan’s not here?” Tsugumi enquired. 

Ako hands her a slip of paper containing Hanako’s meticulous handwriting. _‘I’ll be at a meeting this afternoon. - Hanako’_ was all it said.

“A meeting…? With who?”

Suddenly, Yukina’s eyes widen slightly. She approaches the two girls. “...Hazawa-san, what time is it right now?”

“A few minutes before 4,” she told her. “Why?”

“I have a meeting at around this time also,” the girl replies. “I have to go now, but Hazawa-san, please help make sure that Ako stops using the bathroom as a social spot.”

“Will do…”

Tsugumi watches as the silver-haired girl gracefully walks down the hallway. If Hanako wasn’t here, then that would mean she didn’t have a cleaning slot this afternoon. Which meant… she was free to do whatever she wanted?

“...Ako-chan!” Tsugumi called out to the younger girl right before she turned to leave. “Do you wanna come to the 4 PM bookstacks with me?”

* * *

And so, Ako and Tsugumi went to the school’s library in search of the alleged '4 PM bookstacks’. 

“Sorry for holding you up like this, Ako-chan,” Tsugumi apologizes as she searched the shelves for any clues. “Hopefully Tomoe-chan won’t mind you staying late.”

“It’s okay, Tsugu-chin! I told Nee-chan that I was gonna have a baseball tournament!” Ako told her enthusiastically. 

Tsugumi stifled a small laugh. Baseball season ended weeks ago.

“Besides,” Ako continued. “I kinda wanna read Hanako-chan’s book too! Just imagine what kind of cool stuff is in there!”

“Haha, are you trying to find out her weakness?” Tsugumi smiled. “You’re still trying to exorcise her, right?”

“Uhm…” Ako stops. “Actually… I’m not really gonna do that anymore…”

“Huh? Why?”

“I-I mean! As you said, she’s a good supernatural, right?” Ako stuttered. “Besides, some stuff happened, and… I decided that I wasn’t gonna get rid of her until I figured out for sure whether she was a good guy or not!”

Tsugumi looked at her in amazement. What had happened to change her mind so drastically?

"But if she really is a bad guy after all, then I’d have to know some of her weaknesses in order to exorcise her, right?” 

"That means we both want to get to know her better then…" Tsugumi gives Ako a determined look. "Let's both do our best, then!"

"Yeah!"

Just then, the girls hear a quiet meowing noise coming from below them. Looking down, they saw a small grey cat brush past their feet. It stops in front of a bookshelf towards the back of the library, and paws at a book sitting on the lowest shelf.

"What's a cat doing here? Is it a stray?" Tsugumi wondered aloud, peering at the cat. "Here, do you want this?” she asked it.

As Tsugumi grabbed the book that the cat had been reaching for, the girls’ eyes were blinded by a sudden flash of bright white light. When they reopened their eyes, they found a large wooden door covered in intricate carvings where the bookshelf had been. The cat was nowhere to be seen.

Turning the knob and cracking open the door, they found a dark space filled with seemingly endless rows of bookshelves. 

It looked like one of those fancy libraries you’d find inside a castle; delicate glass lamps were lining its walls, with soft velvet sofas placed neatly opposite the shelves. Like the Misaki Stairs boundary that they'd traversed to a couple of weeks ago, the floor was also covered in ankle-deep water. 

And sure enough, the shelves were filled with black and white books, just like the rumors had promised. This was definitely the rumored 4 PM bookstacks.

“According to the rumors, the white books are for the living and the black ones are for the dead,” Tsugumi recounts. “As long as we stay away from the red books, we should be fine!”

“Whoaa… that’s a lot of people!” Ako exclaimed at the sight. “I don’t see any red books, though.”

Ako was right; there wasn't a single red book in sight. Oh well, it was probably best that there weren't any, anyway. That way they could 100% avoid any fatalities while they were in the boundary.

Since Hanako was a ghost, Ako and Tsugumi came to the obvious conclusion that her record book must be one of the few black ones on the shelves. And since there weren't very many black books, they thought they would be able to find it in no time.

They were wrong.

Hours had gone by, along with piles of black records, but still no sign of Hanako's book. Not even the slightest clue.

"Ah… just what kind of filing system does this library use…?" Tsugumi groaned in dismay. Shifting through piles and piles of books proved to be more exhausting than expected. Ako was in no better shape, having slumped over on a sofa as if she were about to fall asleep. 

Suddenly, small footsteps sounded off from behind them, water splashing as it approached; it was the cat they saw back at the school library. It looked up at them as if beckoning for them to follow it. Deciding to follow the cat, as it might lead them to a clue just as it had shown them the entrance to the bookstacks, Ako and Tsugumi eagerly waited to see where the cat would take them.

The feline suddenly stops in its tracks and leaps up onto the third level of a bookshelf. It paws at one of the books, which read the name _'Tsugumi Hazawa'._

"This is… my book?" Grabbing the book off its shelf, Tsugumi's eyes glittered with excitement at what she might find within it. She flipped through its first few pages with bated breath.

_'Month X, Day X: Tsugumi Hazawa arrives at the Haneoka Girls' Academy opening ceremony five minutes early with her friends (Ran Mitake, Tomoe Udagawa, Himari Uehara, Moca Aoba).'_

_'Month X, Day X: She befriends fellow first-year Eve Wakamiya, who begins working part-time at her family's café shortly after.'_

_'Month X, Day X: Her friend group splits up. She enters a pact with a girl who claims to be School Mystery Number 7.'_

_'Wow,'_ Tsugumi thought as she read through her records. _'Everything really did start the moment you enter this school… and so detailed too.'_

_'Month X, Day X: "Hanako-chan" kisses her on the cheek, claiming it to be a protection spell. Her heart skips a beat at the incident. Later that evening, while staying up late to read her usual Shoujo manga, she wonders what it would feel like if they'd kissed for re-'_

Tsugumi slams the book shut. 

"What is it, Tsugu-chin? Did you find anything cool?" Ako asked from behind her. Tsugumi felt her face starting to heat up; she couldn't let Ako know what she'd just read. It would be too embarrassing to bear.

"I-I found out that the rumors were true!" she stammered. "It's not Hanako-chan's book, but I think we could find out more about her if we read the future sections of the records!"

"Got it! I'll go look for my book then!" Ako said excitedly as she ran down the aisle to look for her own records.

"Remember not to read the red books!" Tsugumi called after her before turning back to her record book. 

Flipping past the ever-so-embarrassing recounts of her more intimate encounters with Hanako, she comes across a bright red page labeled with 'The Future'.

 _'Ah, this must be where the future starts,'_ Tsugumi gathered. Although a bit scared in case she learned too much, she turned the page nonetheless. Unnoticed by her, thick red ink began to slowly ooze out from the sides of the book as soon as she turned the page.

_'Month X, Day X: She gets caught outside in a thunderstorm and gets struck by lightning. She is sent to the hospital, where she stays for a week. She experiences temporary hearing loss in her left ear.'_

Tsugumi could've sworn her heart stopped beating for a moment. This was her worst possible nightmare and by far the scariest thing that could ever possibly happen to her, and it was actually going to come true? What kind of a cruel world would allow for this to happen?

Another page. _‘Month X, Day X: Her very first date; browsing food carts while holding hands. As they part, she is told: “I’m sorry, but I don’t think this is going to work.” Her heart is broken.’_

… Seems like Tsugumi was just destined to have a rocky future no matter what.

_'Month X, Day X: She finds out about School Mystery Number 7's true identity.'_

She gasped. This was it; this was what she'd come here to look for in the first place. She was finally about to find out about Hanako's-

Just then, a scream sounded off from down the aisle, followed by loud crashing noises. It must've been Ako; something was wrong.

Daring to look back down at her book to take one last peek, Tsugumi was horrified to discover that her previously white book had now turned almost completely red. 

_'How…? It was white just a second ago!'_ Tsugumi panicked. As she sped through the last entry on the page, a large apparition began to form behind her from out of the boundary waters.

_'Her real name is…'_

"Tsugu-chin, watch out!"

Before she could react, Ako knocked Tsugumi off her feet and hauled her off to the side, narrowly avoiding a strike from the apparition. Looking up, she realized that the apparition bore an uncanny resemblance to herself; it was monstrous-looking, with long gangly limbs and an unnerving lack of facial features, but there was no doubt that it was supposed to be her. It even had the same hairstyle as she did.

“Tsugu-chin, let’s get out of here!” Ako yelled, grabbing Tsugumi’s hand and dragging her along to the exit. The creature chased after them, running on its four limbs.

“W-what is that thing?!”

“I don’t know! I was just reading my book, then the next thing I knew it turned red! And then _that_ thing appeared!!” Ako grimaced. “It looked like me too…!”

Managing to reach the exit before the monster could, Tsugumi tugged on the door’s handle. But it wouldn’t budge; someone (or something?) had locked them inside the storeroom. The creature loomed over them, preparing to strike again.

“Stand back! I’ll take care of it!” Ako raises her staff, charging a blast of lightning towards the creature. The staff’s power reaches its climax, electricity beginning to swirl around the two girls. The lightning within the staff fully charges up and-

Fires out a beam the size of a peanut. It barely even touched the creature. The back of the staff fizzes, smoke streaming out from under the seal Hanako had placed on it.

“Ahh! I forgot!!” Ako grips the back of her staff, glaring at the seal as if to try and intimidate it into falling off. “Hanako-san, why?!”

“You called me?”

Out of nowhere, Hanako appears before the girls seemingly from thin air. With one fell swoop of her knife, the monster immediately disintegrated into dust, not even breaking a sweat while she did so. Ako watched the ghost, her eyes sparkling with admiration. No doubt she wanted to try and put this maneuver into practice herself someday.

As Hanako slid the blade back into her pocket, more footsteps sounded off from beyond them. Peering towards the noise, Tsugumi saw Yukina rush down the aisle of bookshelves, a look of discontent on her face.

“...What have you done to my books…?” Yukina asked them, as she kneeled and began placing the books back in their respective positions. “Do you know how hard I’ve worked to keep this place in good shape?”

Suddenly, a second apparition rose out of the boundary waters; it was the one that had been chasing Ako before she bumped into Tsugumi. The apparition raises its arm, ready to crush the assistant librarian to pieces.

“Yukina-san! Behind y-”

Before Ako could even finish her warning, Yukina had already slashed the monster to pieces, its remains drifting down into the waters and turning to dust. The girl retracts her claws, brushing her hand off on her uniform skirt. Turning back around to face Ako and Tsugumi, they noticed that her appearance had suddenly changed into a more cat-like one; her pupils had turned into slits, and she’d grown a pair of grey cat ears along with a long forked tail. Small wisps floated around her, just like with Kanon and Hanako.

“Hazawa-san, Ako,” Yukina addressed the two sternly. She held up their record books, which have since turned completely red. “You read entries from the future, didn’t you?”

“W-well, we-”

“Quiet. There’s no excuse you could offer me to justify what you’ve done.” Yukina narrows her eyes, her face growing dark. “I have no sympathies for-”

Hanako taps her colleague on the shoulder. “I think they’ve learned their lesson by now,” she says.

Yukina looks at her, then looks back at the two girls, who were backed up against a nearby bookcase. She drops her hands to her side. “If you insist, Honorable Number 7,” she sighs.

“Um, Hanako-chan?” Tsugumi interjected. “What’s she…?”

“Oh, I’m guessing you haven’t been acquainted yet,” Hanako says, while gesturing to Yukina. “This is School Mystery Number 5, the curator of the 4 PM Bookstacks. Or, as you might know her by, Yukina Minato.”

Tsugumi stared at the silver-haired girl in awe. She'd known her for as long as she's been a part of the student council and yet hadn’t even the slightest suspicion she was a supernatural this whole time, much less one of the school mysteries.

"Are you surprised that I'm not human?" Yukina asks Tsugumi, noticing her surprise. 

"Ah, a little bit…"

"It's not that unusual. There are quite a few supernaturals who decide to blend in with humans and live amongst them," Yukina says. "When it comes to keeping our rumors circulating, most of us prefer to spread our rumors ourselves. Maybe even one of your friends might prove themselves to be something other than human."

Tsugumi thinks of her friends. They were definitely trying to hide something from her, that much was clear; from Tomoe's exorcist background to... whatever Ran was doing. But it was hard to imagine any of them to be anything other than humans. Was it really possible that there was a supernatural amongst the five of them?

As the girls conversed, a figure cracks open the door to the bookstacks and lets themselves inside. 

"S-sorry I'm late!" It was Number 2 of the Misaki Stairs, in her human form. "I got lost around the school again…"

Tsugumi waves at the newcomer. "I had no idea it was so common... does that mean there's going to be a lot more trouble at this school then?"

"Perhaps. But we're here to make sure that doesn't happen," Hanako added. "It's our job as the Seven Mysteries to keep the school safe, after all."

Kanon nods. "We supervise all the supernaturals here at the school…"

"...And maintain a healthy relationship between humans and supernaturals," Yukina finished.

"But lately…" Hanako's tone turned serious, more so than usual. "It seems like one of us Seven has become a traitor."

A chill ran down Tsugumi's spine. The way Hanako had said that… it seemed so sudden and so jarring compared to everything that's happened previously.

"I presume that this traitor has bound their fate to a human somehow, and is using that connection in order to spread harmful rumors for their own benefit," Hanako continued. "As a result of this, the supernaturals of Haneoka are becoming more and more unstable. Number 2 was one of the victims."

Yukina brushes through her hair with her fingers, her claws now unsheathed. Her yellow eyes glowed in the dim light. The small grey cat from earlier strolls up to her and eagerly leaps into her arms.

"The effectiveness of rumors spread by a human bound to a supernatural increases the stronger that supernatural is," she says, stroking the cat. "It wouldn't be a very big deal to change the rumors of just any supernatural, but if they were able to affect one of the Seven Mysteries… it might prove to be more trouble than we anticipated."

"That means... whoever's doing it must be a human bound to one of the Seven Mysteries," Kanon explains.

Tsugumi's eyes widened. Could it be that there was someone else in the school that was in the same situation as she was?

"But…" Tsugumi plays with her uniform's ribbon. "Who would do something like that?"

"We don't know. That's why this meeting was held," Hanako shrugged. "Which is why I believe it would be in our best interests to temporarily dismantle all of the Seven Mysteries for now. If we destroyed everyone's Yorishiro, then there would be no chance for any of us to step out of line."

"T-that's… kind of extreme," Kanon frowned, thinking back to the moment her own Yorishiro had been destroyed. 

"Maybe, but it's the safest option we have so far. And since Hazawa-san already has the ability to destroy Yorishiros, there's no point in waiting," Hanako says. She then turns to Yukina, who had been staring at her with a dazed expression. "Minato-san, please take her to your Yorishiro, if you wouldn't mind."

“Absolutely not.”

Hanako raises an eyebrow. 

“...Is what I’d like to say,” Yukina says. “But I don’t want any of you to ransack through my books anymore, so I’ll hand it over. On one condition.”

“...One condition?” Tsugumi asks.

“I’m a supernatural who craves knowledge,” she explains. “If you want access to something as important as my Yorishiro, you’ll have to offer me information valuable enough to warrant it.”

“And what if they don’t tell you anything?” Hanako asks, crossing her arms. “Will you be fighting against me?”

“I wouldn’t dream of it. I’ll still hand over the Yorishiro,” Yukina replies, letting her cat shift onto her shoulder. “But as punishment for ruining my books, I’ll just have to broadcast all their secrets over the intercom. It’s only fair.”

“Y-you can’t do that!” Ako cried.

“Yukina-chan, I think that’s a little too harsh…” Kanon smiles at the two apologetically.

“Why not? I have all of their secrets right here, anyway,” Yukina says, holding up Ako and Tsugumi’s now-red record books. “Well? What are you waiting for?”

And so began Ako and Tsugumi's barrage of revealing their deepest, darkest secrets.

"I've spent close to 40,000 yen in mangas!"

"I didn't know how to spell my name until I was five and had to have my sister help me!"

"I'm terrified of thunderstorms!"

"I'm really scared of the Oni masks they wear at Setsubun!!"

But nothing seemed to satisfy Yukina. She just continued to shake her head at every reveal, inching ever-so-closer to the school-wide broadcast. Ako and Tsugumi were at a complete loss.

“Ugh, neither of our secrets are cool enough for Yukina-san!” Ako exclaimed. She then points at Hanako. “Hanako-san! Can you try telling her something?”

Hanako points at herself. “Me?” 

“Yeah! I bet you have tons of super cool secrets, right? Just tell her one!”

Hanako raises her eyebrows, then looks at Yukina. “Minato-san, do you really want to know a secret from me?”

Tsugumi held her breath in anticipation. This could be a great chance for them to finally find out something about Hanako and make this whole endeavor worth it.

Yukina glances at Hanako from the corner of her eyes. “...Can’t say I do,” she says plainly. “I know enough already.”

“Well, you heard her,” Hanako says, turning back to Ako. “I have nothing to offer her.”

“What? No fair!” Ako cried. “You heard all of our secrets, it’s only fair you tell one of yours! Tell her, Tsugu-chin!”

“H-huh? Uh, yeah! It’s not… very fair?” Tsugumi says awkwardly, having been caught off guard.

Hanako sighs. “...Do you two really want to know about me that badly?”

At the same time, Ako and Tsugumi grabbed Hanako’s hands, taking it in their own. “Yes!” they cried in unison.

Hanako blinks at the pair, an unidentifiable expression on her face. She turns away from them, looking down at the ground.

“I… don’t like talking about myself, but if I must…” the spirit takes a deep breath. Her face flushes as if embarrassed by what she was about to reveal. “I… really like… eating junk food…”

Ako and Tsugumi stare at Hanako in stunned silence at the reveal of her ‘secret’, who then averts their stares in embarrassment. 

“Ha! Did you hear that? She said she likes junk food!” Ako yells, turning back to Yukina. “How’s that for a secret?!”

Yukina says nothing, instead just pinches the bridge of her nose in exasperation.

“Aww, it wasn’t good enough…”

“What kind of junk food do you like specifically?” Tsugumi pats Hanako’s shoulder, who was still looking down in embarrassment. Except now, she wore a small smile on her face.

“...Fast food, potato chips, candy...”

“Whoa, me too!” Ako says excitedly. “What brand of chips are your favorite? And what flavor? Personally, mine is…”

Yukina hums at the trio’s interactions with each other. “...That’s nice, isn’t it?”

“What is?” Kanon asks her, perplexed.

“Nothing. It’s just that I’ve never seen Number 7 with that expression before,” Yukina replies. Hanako turns to look at her, an eyebrow raised. 

“I never thought you were one for making friends, but… that might be interesting.” The cat resting on her shoulder meows, and Yukina claps her hands in response. “Anyway, your time is up.”

“N-noo!” Ako cried. “I-I really hate eating eggs!”

“I can’t drink black coffee! The bitterness makes me wanna cry!” Tsugumi joined in.

“That’s quite enough,” Yukina chided. “Neither of you have secrets worth telling, I know that much. The broadcast was merely… something of a joke.”

The Nekomata turns to a nearby lamp, pulling on its string. “...Besides, I did end up seeing something interesting anyhow.”

The entire bookcase opens up, revealing a cave-like hallway beyond it. The walls of the passageway were covered completely in multicolored crystals, which twinkled in the darkness of the cave.

“Come,” Yukina says, taking the lamp off its hook. “I’ll take you to my Yorishiro.”

“Yeah! Let’s go!” Ako shouts, rushing forward into the passageway. Yukina promptly blocks her with her arm before she could get inside.

“Not you. The only one allowed past this point is the Kannagi girl who will be destroying the Yorishiro,” Yukina says. “That means you, Hazawa-san.”

On command, Tsugumi begins to follow Yukina into the dark passageway. She turns back to look at Hanako, who catches her concerned glances.

“...Take care of my assistant then, Minato-san,” Hanako says as the doors closed behind them.

The bookcase doors slam shut, and the two were now alone.

Walking alongside the school mystery, Tsugumi could feel the weight of the awkward atmosphere surrounding them. They’d conversed just fine during student council meetings, but once they were within the boundary it was as if they’d both forgotten how to speak. They walked in silence for quite some time.

Finally, Yukina clears her throat, breaking the silence. “So…” she says. “...How is she?”

Tsugumi looks at her, surprised. “Huh?”

“Number 7,” Yukina clarifies. “How are things working out with her?”

 _‘Is she asking how I’m getting along with Hanako-chan…?’_ Tsugumi thinks for a moment. “Well… she can be kinda scary, and is a little harsh on Ako-chan sometimes…”

Yukina hummed in response.

“But I can tell she’s a genuinely kind person. She’s saved my life so many times…” Tsugumi plays with a strand of stay hair. “I’d like to think of her as a friend!

“...I see,” Yukina says, adjusting her hold on the lantern. “That’s good, then.”

For a second, it seemed like the supernatural was actually worried about Hanako. The pair continue to walk in silence for a brief distance.

“Oh, right,” Tsugumi says, remembering something. “I have a question…”

“Hmm?”

“The things written in the record books… can they be changed in any way?” Tsugumi grimaced, thinking about the lightning entry she’d read in her book. “There was something in the future section that I… didn’t like very much…”

“Unfortunately, no. It’s fundamentally impossible to change the courses of fate,” Yukina responds. “As the curator, it’s technically possible for me to change it, but I’d be erased from existence as a consequence if I did. So I’d rather not.”

“Ah… I see…”

“However…” The pair comes across a crossroads of three doors similar to the one at the bookstacks’ entrance. “I’ve seen it happen once before. A moment where the future was changed.”

Yukina inserts a key into the door on the far right, which unlocks with a click. 

“So if you’re wishing for a better future, I hope it goes well for you. But I won’t help you.” The spirit opens the door, bright light streaming out into the dark passage. “We’re here.”

The room beyond the door was something of a study, with glass display cases filled with the most beautiful gems and jewels, all of which rested upon an open book. The room did seem somewhat in disrepair, however; it didn’t look like anyone’s been here for a while. 

Instead of opening up one of the display cases like Tsugumi had thought she would, the school myth instead walks over to what appeared to be an ordinary school desk. She pulled out its tray and lifted a small rock out of it.

“Here,” Yukina said, handing Tsugumi the rock. “My Yorishiro.”

Tsugumi stared down at the stone. This was definitely her Yorishiro, judging by the seal placed on it, but… it was unusually plain, considering its owner and the room it was in.

“...Are you surprised?” Yukina asks her.

“A little…” Tsugumi admits. “I guess I’m a bit confused as to why a rock would be your most prized possession.”

“I don’t blame you. I’d be surprised too,” Yukina says. “It… was a gift. From someone I knew a long time ago.”

“Oh?” 

“Do you recall the person I mentioned earlier? The one that managed to change their future?” Yukina pulls out a chair from the school desk, taking a seat on it. “This was given to me by her.”

Tsugumi took another glance at the rock. She couldn’t imagine why someone would consider giving this as a gift. 

“What kind of rock is it?” she asked, taking a closer look at the rock’s edges. 

“A lunar rock,” Yukina replied. 

“Really?”

“Of course.” Yukina’s cat, which had been perched on her shoulder this whole time, leaps down into her lap. “Do you remember the day mankind went to the moon? I received this the day after that.”

“Ohh…”

“She was a classmate of mine. Strict, hardworking, and often had trouble expressing her true feelings…” Yukina strokes her cat, which began to purr. “She was really something else.”

Tsugumi peers at Yukina, who wore a slightly melancholic expression on her face. “So… how did she change her future?”

“Hard to say.” Yukina stands up, her cat climbing back onto her shoulder. “Please do what you must. I’d like to get this over with.”

Following suit, Tsugumi carefully peels the seal off the lunar rock. Just like with Kanon’s boundary, the space around them shattered into neat triangular shards. The rock crumbles in her hand.

* * *

_“It is now 5:30 PM. Will the children playing outside please carefully make your way back home.”_

It was a warm summer afternoon. Kids were playing happily outside, the last rays of sunset streaming into the classroom. A doodle of an astronaut standing on the moon’s surface was drawn crudely on the blackboard, labeled with the words ‘Apollo 11’.

“Thank you for helping me tidy up, Minato-san,” someone says. Someone with long blue hair and calm green eyes. “My usual partner happened to be absent today.”

“It’s not a problem. I had no previous arrangements, anyway,” Yukina says. She suddenly turns to face the other girl, noticing something off. “Sayo… what’s that on your face?”

Sayo reaches up to touch her face, immediately retracting her fingers upon feeling a sharp sting; there was a scrape on her left cheek.

“...It’s nothing. I just tripped and fell, is all.”

Yukina raises an eyebrow. Although she never said it out loud, she’d been worried about Sayo for quite some time. The girl never talked about her home life and certainly not about herself, but always seemed lost in thought as if something was deeply bothering her. Not to mention the numerous injuries that covered her body from time to time.

“...Is someone doing this to you?” Yukina asks her. No response. “You’ve been acting distant like this ever since I first met you. Is something going on?”

“Everything is fine, I assure you,” Sayo says in response, albeit not very convincingly. 

At that moment, Yukina had had enough. 

“Sayo,” she says. “To be frank, I’m worried about you."

Sayo scoffs. "Is that so?"

"I'm your fellow disciplinary council member, in case you've forgotten." Yukina walks up to Sayo, forcing eye contact. "You're constantly lost in thought as if something were bothering you and when you're not lost in thought you're covered in some sort of injury. Tell me, just what is going on-"

“It’s nothing.” Sayo’s suddenly stern tone stunned Yukina into silence. “I have no one to blame but myself for all of this. It’s my burden to bear, not yours." She tightens her fists, looking down at the hardwood floors. "Even if there’s no good reason to justify what was done… I forgive it.”

“Sayo…”

The blue-haired girl reaches into her pocket, taking out a small round object. “Here,” she says, handing the object to Yukina. 

"...Why are you giving me this?"

“It’s a lunar rock. My most prized possession”

Yukina peers at the rock in confusion. It looked like just any old rock you’d find on the ground. “A… lunar rock. Really.”

“Someone gave it to me when I was about four years old,” Sayo explains. “Of course, the notion seems silly now, but… we believed it to be real. No matter what anyone said, this was definitely a lunar rock.”

Yukina looked at her in surprise. Sayo didn’t seem like the type of person to adopt such a quixotic mindset, especially not for something as mundane as a simple rock.

Sayo walks over to the window, a soft breeze blowing into the classroom. The curtains gently swayed in the wind.

“...Have you ever wanted to go to the moon, Minato-san?” she asked, peering at the sky. It was late enough in the afternoon that the moon had just become visible.

“Can’t say I have. It seems like a rather bothersome profession,” Yukina replies, returning to her previous task of wiping down the blackboard. She then turns back to Sayo, and her eyes widen in fear. The other girl was leaning almost completely out the open window. If she’d leaned any further she would surely slip and fall to her death, plummeting from the third floor and into the earth below. 

“Me neither, really. I can’t really see the appeal of being an astronaut,” Sayo says calmly, as if she wasn't dangling halfway out the window. “But the moon’s just so beautiful… It really makes me wonder sometimes. Maybe they have a point.” 

Sayo leans even further out the window, so much so that her heels begin to lift off the ground. Maybe a little _too_ far.

“Wait- Sayo!” Yukina rushes towards the girl, her hand outstretched. “Get away from there!”

Upon hearing her name be called, Sayo leans back into the classroom, mere seconds away from slipping out the window.

“Minato-san… you’re worried about me?” Sayo asks her.

“I am.”

“Then… would you do me a favor?” 

"...Sure."

Sayo takes the lunar rock from the desk, handing it back to Yukina. “I want you to have this.”

Yukina delicately takes the rock in her hands, more confused than before. “Why? Didn’t you say this was your most prized possession?”

“Yes,” Sayo responds. She walks back over to the window and gracefully sits down on its ledge. “It’s just that… whenever I used to look at that rock, it made me feel like I could go anywhere I wanted. Like I could do anything I wanted to do.”

The sun had completely set by now. The warm, golden sunlight was now replaced by the cool blue tints of moonlight.

“But…” Sayo looks Yukina directly in the eyes. “I’ve already made up my mind. I won’t be going anywhere.”

The memory fades.

* * *

Tsugumi wakes up. Looking around, she realized that she was currently held in the school’s nurse’s office. 

“Oh, you’re awake,” Yukina says. She was sitting nearby Tsugumi’s recovery bed and was now back to her regular human appearance.

“Yukina-san…” Tsugumi says groggily. “That memory…?"

“The same thing happened when you destroyed Number 2’s Yorishiro, right?” Yukina closes the novel she’d been reading. “You saw the memories that were bound to the Yorishiro.”

“Then…” Tsugumi’s heart skips a beat. “The person who changed her future… it was her…?”

“Sayo Hikawa. Number 7’s real name,” Yukina says. “We had that conversation the day after the Apollo 11 moon landing." She tucks a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "At that time, people felt like they could do anything and go anywhere. They thought that if going to the moon was now possible, then what other impossible dreams could now be achieved?”

Tsugumi nods, listening intently.

“The world was filled with so much hope back then. You can only imagine my concern when Sayo told me that she ‘wasn’t going to go anywhere’,” Yukina continued. “Or rather, I pretended to be concerned.”

“Pretended?”

“I’d already found and read the future section in her record book, so I knew exactly what was going to happen to her,” she explains. “The book said she’d go on to become a teacher right at this school. If she lived, she might’ve even gone on to be your teacher at some point.” Yukina looks down, a sorrowful look flooding her eyes. “She… wasn’t supposed to die like this.”

Despite what she said earlier about pretending to feel concerned, the supernatural looked genuinely distressed at her friend’s unexpected end.

“Sayo was the only person I ever knew to have changed her fate,” Yukina continues. “She completely gave up on her future, and just like she promised, she hasn't gone anywhere. To this day, she’s still here as a supernatural - Mystery Number 7: Hanako-san of the girls’ bathroom.” 

Yukina stands up, heading towards the office’s exit. She turns back to look at Tsugumi. “That’s all the information I can reveal to you thus far. What you do with it is up to you.” 

Then she’s gone.

Tsugumi grips the blanket of her medical bed. Seeing Hanako… no. Seeing _Sayo_ in Yukina’s flashback made her feel complicated emotions she didn’t know how to articulate. There was still so much she didn't know about Hanako; was it even right for her to refer to her as 'Hanako-chan' anymore?

Immediately after Yukina’s departure, Ako bursts through the office doors and hurdles towards Tsugumi's bed, followed shortly by Hanako.

"Tsugu-chin, you did it!!" Ako cried, hugging Tsugumi around her neck. "You destroyed Yukina-san's Yorishiro!"

"I'm sorry Hazawa-san, I tried to stop her," Hanako says apologetically. 

Tsugumi looks up at the ghost, who was staring back at her with her calm green eyes. She always looked so sensible and level-headed, but if what she saw in the flashback was anything to go by, just exactly how much had she been suffering through all these years? She couldn't even bear to think about it.

"Hana-" she stops. "Um… S-Sayo-san?"

Sayo's eyes widen ever so slightly. "...Yes?" she says slowly. No one had called her that name in a very long time.

Tsugumi dives into the other girl, putting her arms around her in a tight embrace. Cautiously, Sayo returns the gesture and pats her on the back.

Sayo's body held no warmth. Of course, Tsugumi knew this from the very beginning; she'd been dead for years now. However, this was the first time she'd actually stopped to ponder on the fact that she was once _alive_ and _breathing._ How do you cope with something like that?

"...Were you scared by Minato-san's boundary?" Sayo guessed. She didn't know how to react in a situation like this.

Not knowing what else to do, Tsugumi simply nodded. Tears began to form at the edge of her eyes, though she wasn't exactly sure why. The flashback must've been more overwhelming than she'd initially thought. 

_'How am I supposed to face her like this now?'_

* * *

Later that day, once everyone had gone home, Sayo decided to pay a visit to Yukina. She finally found her in an empty hallway near the nurse's office, illuminated by the blue moonlight.

"Minato-san," she greets her, somewhat coldly. 

"Number 7. Is something wrong?"

"It's Hazawa-san. She's been acting strange ever since she destroyed your Yorishiro," Sayo says. She narrows her eyes in suspicion. "...You didn't tell her anything she didn't need to know, did you?"

"No. All we did was discuss my Yorishiro," Yukina replies. "She asked about it, and I answered."

"Hmm…" Sayo hummed in response. "The moon is awfully bright tonight."

"Oh, you're right."

Sayo peers up at the moon, a distant look in her eyes. "...Minato-san, have you ever wanted to go to the moon?"

Yukina blinks, a sense of deja vu washing over her; they'd had this conversation once before. She gives the other girl a small smile.

"Can't say I have. It seems like an awfully bothersome profession."


End file.
